I don’t think the Russian propaganda efforts succeeded in the most part. And it failed because of structural biases in the West.

The News Media is made up a mostly hereditary, very liberal, very rich, group of people who dislike the Status-quo powers, particularly the West, and love the “underdog.”

Russia is HUGE. Georgia is tiny. Thus, the biases in the media were all for Georgia, and against Russia. Just as they were FOR Hezbollah (viewed as the underdog) and against Israel (viewed as the Western overdog).

Not even his peers are interested in Robert Scheer’s rants in favor of Russia. Because of the built-in underdog bias. Had the affair been entirely Georgia vs. S. Ossetia, the Ossetians would have been the underdog and the MSM would have rooted for them.

As much as Putin understands the West, he has huge gaps because he fundamentally does not understand the mindset of the elites. His glitterati are all new, ours have been around since the 80′s. The 1880′s that is.