Russian authorities do that not because they are good guys and not because they think that it is a right thing, but because they will totally lose any credibility among citizens if they will, say, began to push or even ignore gay propaganda.

IDK if I could find a good analogy, and I'm not aware about current level of coprophagy acceptance among average Americans, but imagine if current US authorities began to push literal coprophagy. POTUS eating shit before cameras, mandating people to eat their shit to have access to basic things, MSM articles that coprophagy is a new normal and so on.

You can't declare that US authorities do the right thing or are good guys just because they are not literal coprophages.

The main problem, that those who oppose Russia have, is that they base all their opposing exclusively on the things of that kind - not accepting something disguisting.

Russia have a lot of problems that could be successfully used as real base for opposing and anti-Russian propaganda, but due to complete ignorance and illiteracy those who try to oppose Russia just don't have any clue about them, focusing only on unacceptance of things they was forced to accept in their countries.

One of such stupidest narratives is "lack of freedom", f.e. Somehow that people think that "freedom" they was told they have, absolutely have to be something vauable for Russians. But we don't need "freedom" to uselessly shout "Fuck Joe Biden / Vladimir Putin!" at stadiums. That is not freedom we want/need/interested in. We are much more interested, f.e. in freedom to ignore laws any Biden/Putin/whoever could potentially sign. But I never heard anything about that very important freedom from the loud mouths of those who oppose Russia.

I also never heard anything about f.e. absence of criminal prosecution for elected politicians who gave false promises before elections, elected on the pase of that lies and then didn't bother to fulfill them as promised. That's the real problem here and that is why Russia could be well-reasonably declared bad.

There are tons of such things, but that is not things propagandists want to know abiut Russia. And highly probably they really don't want their western audience become aware that such problems could exist at all or even that they could be accounted as problems.

Everything that is used in anti-Russian propaganda have little to do with Russia, really. It is a kind of attempt to strengthen the virtues Western society push on their citizens in that citizens themselves. "Look, Russia bad because it does behave in the way we pushed on you as right, so if you do not support that irrelevant bullshit than you as bad as Russia".

Propaganda is interesting thing, really, and most of it have its own population as a target. Same with Western propaganda against Russia. It is never intended to convince Russians in something, it is a way to convince Western audience that what is declared virtues on the West are real virtues.

Some Westerners who tired from Western propaganda try to oppose it just by turning the tide by 180 degrees. But that's a wrong way too. Look, imagine that Western propaganda is like a parallel to Russian reality, It never crosses it and have nothing to do with it. So even if you found some virtues in a Russian way, turning 180 to Western propaganda gives you absolutely nothing. Parallels does not cross, whatever way you travel along them. If the way is wrong, turning back solves nothing. You have to make a 90 degrees turn to get out of that wrong way.

Think for yourself, do not allow propaganda hold you on the wrong path, whatever direction you choose on that path.

TL;DR: If you tired from anti-Russian propaganda, praising Russia on the things that was used in that propaganda is the wrong way to go. You still on the same path they created for you.