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.
It functions as appeasement, but it isn't intentional I think. The media knows that resistance to Russia is popular and so these stories are spun in a positive light to generate interactions.
That makes more sense. I didn't know if it was intentional or just a happy coincidence for them. Probably the second one.