Oversimplificated, they are just oversimplificated. The world is good and bad. The current establishment of government they know is clearly bad to them, so the enemy of their enemy must be a friend and part of good then.

But speaking of it, Putin was stationed as a KGB officer in saxony in the cold war(allegedly being responsible for radical west german left terrorists) and speaks german. I surely noticed lot's of russian propaganda channels. They became a big thing during Corona and became obvious russian (at least to some), when the channels that propagated antivaxx before suddenly reported anti Ukrainian propaganda and also openly support for the russian aggression.