Middle sentence should be East not West, yes?
The East used to have an easier time getting Western news back then too...
I recall in the East they got VOA and RFE when not jammed..
Only KGB spies got things like Life magazine.
A real life embedded USSR spy in US said the USSR knowledge of life in US was minimal and wrong.
His training was awful he said.
Putin lived in the west and had rare experience. West Germany I think.
I recall VOA and RFE tried to be objective so as to be more credible.
Recently some Baltic country recently arrested people for providing VPN access to Russian media.