-snip-
Well, that's why I've said that the number of people voluntarily helping out Russian interests was greatly outnumbering the quantity of paid shills. USSR has tried to use brute force to push its interests through, flinging its financial and political capital without care, its own propaganda making it sure that it was always just on the cusp of winning the "worker class" and starting a world-wide revolution, while in reality, it couldn't be further away from truth, as USSR has crumbled first, shattered apart by its own weaknesses.
Modern Russia is significantly less stronger, and that, ironically enough, made it far more dangerous, after the initial shock of defeat wore off - since it has started to aim for the true weaknesses in the Western political structures, having no meaningful chances to win without such strategies. Sure, its influence may not be so large in absolute numbers - but it doesn't matter, when it serves as a seed to crystallize the unformed motions of general dissatisfaction with the existing world structure into a firm pro-Russian (or anti-globalist, for that matter) opposition, utilizing the great media force of these countries to deal an absolutely ironic defeat to the forces of liberty.
Putin is a judoist, remember? Judo being a martial art revolving around using the strength of the enemy against them, it makes sense that Putin and the better-skilled parts of his political apparatus would judo the hell out of their adversaries too strong to defeat conventionally.
And the best - or worst, depending on which side of the Russian border you're on - part is, it's working, and working rather well, since the usual anti-Russian media strategies that worked against USSR appear to no longer work to suppress modern Russia's influence.
Maybe it's because conventional censorship no longer works in the Internet age, or maybe it's because of something else, but Russia has, with GDP less than Italy's, managed to emerge in a dominant position over a significant portion of the Western world, with multiple pro-Russian/anti-globalist candidates and positions winning in the countries long thought to be secured by liberty.