No, I agree with him in quite a few points.
The thing is, cancel culture in Russia has yet to take strong root, and, somewhat paradoxically, strengthening of what here on Medium folks like to label as Kremlin propaganda comes from one valuable lesson that was learned after collapse of the USSR. It can be summed up in the following dialogue:
Today Kremlin cabal formally bans sources of information that are said to discredit their reputation, at the same time largely ignoring acts of transgression, via VPNs or other tools.
Significantly more Russians are skilled in English and other main world languages, than foreigners in Russian. Hence Russians, if they ever try to bypass blocks and compare qualias, have a priori greater chance to succeed than foreigners who decide to study Russian trivia under shadow of war.
Almost every adult in Russian cities big and small, if not disabled intellectually, has an access to very cheap and fast Internet, and nothing in principle prevents him or her from achieving competence to bypass the blocks. Russia is not North Korea, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, or Turkmenistan, where access to main Net is seriously or irrepairably crippled, it isn’t close even to China in that regard.
However, farcical sanctions work (methinks, are designed to work) in such a way that attempts to break false identity between Russians and Putinists (the only Ukrainian nationalists seek to promulgate) lead more often to further alienation of those who don't support Putinism from Western world, and from Ukrainians that now are stuck between the hammer of invasion and the anvil of internal military dictatorship under disguise of fledgling democracy.
Walls and grates that formed around Russia, like I already said, complicate attempts of entry and communication from outside (including attempts from Russian emigrants who still aren't ready to throw away all their previous possessions), whereas escape from inside is relatively straightforward. This brings inversion of practices formed during the Cold War 1.0. Also it supports Kremlin propaganda in a warped manner through experience of those who tried to leave it all behind only to be met with cancel measures of collective responsibility. See, e.g., numerous acts of stopping Russian (but usually not Belorussian, Palestinian, or Israeli) athletes from taking part in various international competitions, even if said athletes have neither desire nor opportunity to support actions of imperial government. Ditto international scientific collaboration, et al. Due to all of the above, acts of incomprehension or, worse, purposeful distortion of facts and its readings happen; of course, Ukrainian propaganda aimed at prolongation of war at all costs further amplifies those.
But then again, it’s not especially unexpected. Even in remarkably prescient A Song Called Youth sequence by John Shirley, which our reality worldline now is confidently tracking, Russians are totally faceless, despite his Red Storm rising in era of already well-developed information networks, AR, VR, satellite colonies etc.
Maybe there's a way to drain the Putin's magical pot from unpleasant stew that bubbles there, but definitely not via blocking the drainage. Sanctions implemented to date serve only to block the drainage —through small holes, and even then, only in the Western direction. Naturally, money (and human capital) turneth about back unto the Gremlin of the North. The spice must flow. The flower war must flourish.
