Extent of Russian brainwashing (evident also at the Ron Paul Institute for “Peace”):

A Facebook eulogy to a Russian nationalist who died in Ukraine, Aleksandr Vlasov, cited the young man’s posts before leaving, and his plans. “We should receive assault rifles” on the Ukrainian side, he said. He planned to buy a uniform and a rucksack in Russia, then slip across.

“Sure, I don’t want to die and leave my children and wife and living mother,” he wrote. “But it would be worse to someday have my son ask, ‘And what did you do while the Nazis killed people?’” He finished by writing, “Russians forgot how to die. And we die marvelously. Like none others.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/world/europe/russians-yearning-to-join-ukraine-battle-find-lots-of-helping-hands.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0