I've seen a lot of neoliberals claiming to be liberals outing themselves lately but I also think there's another marketing aspect I haven't seen talked about much: I think the Russian oligarch angle is being pushed so much as a kind of way for more class conscuous leftists to still be pro imperialism and do things in America's interests.
You see it with classic talking points like "This war is about hurting these people not the working class" but also the post on the front page of reddit with people who seized a mansion of an oligarch and it just got me thinking "they're doing this to let us 'get it out of our system'" Idk just something I noticed and was curious if it was something or not.
No, I know that part. But I'm seeing it as a "go ahead and hate /these/ oligarchs seize /their/ property etc, get that revolutionary drive out of your system"
I think that's a bit if a stretch. I think it's more that people just have a baseline russophobia that is easy to play up for their benefit.. Also your hypothesis assumes that the upsurge in revolutionary activity in the imperial core is the result of just like animating spirit or the zeitgeist of the times and not objective material conditions.