I had this theory going back to Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin. The whole point of the interview was Tucker Carlson, the son of a fed (and likely a fed himself) with ties to Claremont trying to extend and olive branch to Russia. Putin saw through this and deliberately made the interview difficult and covered lots of Russian history and in particular, it's otherness from "the west" and Putin's own personal frustration in trying to reach an accord with the west. He also made sure to mention that Russia is good friends with China and that relationship will never sour.

So now Russia's gone and blocked Rumble. Rumble is a Thiel-backed video streaming site full of "dissident right" content creators that regularly glaze Russia. Russia hasn't banned YouTube which is full of anti-Russia, pro-Ukrainian content.

I'm sure you can work out the theme I'm pointing out here. There's a strong current in the west linked to Thiel, Claremont, Yoram Hazony etc. that want to curry favour with Russia and maybe even have Russia in this movement of "national conservativism." But Russia seems to want not nothing to do with it. At least that's how it seems to me.