Is that where it comes from! I didn’t know. I’d assumed they thought we were associated with their devil.
That explanation’s a little less awful. – though it occurs to me that the people looking for horns may not know that explanation either.
Ha! That’s about as likely as Americans thinking the 2020 election was crooked.
AIUI, the Russian “Ukrainians=Nazis” theme leans heavily on the involvement of some neo-Nazi groups in previous uprisings against pro -Russia governments and particularly on one incident in the 2014 fighting:
None of which, of course, excuses what Russia is doing: but it does explain how such a view could have real traction among Russians, especially those who don’t or can’t go out of their way to access non-Russian media.