I've heard a lot of that sort of talk from people in Russia and, granted, our governments do misinform and often have monopolies on our media but in Russia it is far, far worse.
The idea that the West is out to get Russia seems to be very strong even today. You should hold remind yourselves that if there is a "West" (presumably NATO), the last thing they want is to harm Russia or Russians in any way or exploit you. They want a Russia that is a part of their power bloc. If Putin and other radical Russian Imperialists/Eurasianists stop trying to form another Eastern Bloc/Warsaw (Almaty?) Pact of ex-Soviet countries then there will be no problem.
Russia fought numerous wars with the West and lost tens (if not hundreds) of millions of lives. It's no wonder that after such a long history of devastating conflicts, which were almost always started by the Western powers, Russians and the Russian government (with the exception of the cosmopolitan liberals) don't trust the Western world, regard all Western politicians as scheming backstabbers and prepare for another war with the Western countries.
The new Eastern Bloc built by horrible Russian imperialists that you've mentioned isn't an offensive bloc. It is a defensive bloc, created in preparation for the day when armies of the Western world will once again go on a crusade against Russia, like they did decades and centuries ago. Ordinary Westerners might think that now they have nothing against Russia, and Russians are just paranoid, but when the interests of the West and Russia will clash and a new war will be inevitable, the unbiased Western mass media will once again remind the ordinary Westerners that have nothing against Russia that those Russian barbarians threaten the free world and must be stopped. Ordinary Westerners that have nothing against Russia will believe it, and will go to Russia to bring the light of Western civilization to those savage lands, just like ordinary Germans that had nothing against Russia went to Russia in 1941 in order to do the same, or like ordinary Englishmen in 1853, or like ordinary Frenchmen in 1812... And after the end of the war and after the deaths of another millions of Russians, Westerners will argue decades in the future that that the West have no interest in harming Russia or Russians, and all that anti-Western sentiment in Russia is stirred by an imperialist Russian dictator.