Given the negative propagandist media coverage without any possibility of access to direct information to form one's own impression about how things really are,

Given the negative propagandist media coverage without any possibility of access to direct information to form one's own impression about how things really are, this not really a surprise. The masses have always been massaged by mass media to conform to the political will of any given country's owners who live under the delusion of being owners of the whole world. Doesn't even matter which side one is looking from of the whole situation.