He’s studied Russian history extensively, think it was his major or minor at his Ivy league school. Obviously, he’s a bit biased, as everyone is, but if you watched oliver stone’s ukraine on fire, you’d see that exactly half of ukraine is “pro-Russia.” It’s not “stockholm syndrome.” Ukraine was a corrupt cesspool that shat on it’s citizenry, not unlike Russia in some regards, but I’d prefer my dictators put their cards on the table instead of hiding behind the ruse of “progressive democracies.” I think he’s worth his salt, imho.