Back when I lived in Canada and had some exposure to some of local Russian communities, it was bloody obvious that there was a concentrated Russian government effort to manipulate and control their opinion.

All online spots - forums, bbses, etc. - had at least one troll reposting from the offical news. More places than one had these as mods or admins. Agitating and stirring the pot was a daily occurence, which was quite effecient given that migrant communities tends to comprise people that aren't exactly well off and generally happy with life. To give an example - people discussing faking a divorce to double their unemployment benefits, that sort of thing. So given them an outlet to vent was working well. Conversely, those who were better established steered clear of these and formed smaller clusters of their own.

So what the GP is experiencing is likely related to them being (originally) a part of one of these poorer bubbles and the effect just lingers on.