It was the same way at the end of WW2. The end was clearly coming, and a lot of town-level officials and councils were trying to organize a coherent surrender, and preserve the infrastructure so people wouldn’t be stranded or starving or have an insurmountable task ahead of them, trying to rebuild in the aftermath. And generally, there were a couple of local Nazi-party members who were FANATICAL about needing to fight to the last man, sabotage all supplies, whatever it took, in the absolutely insane delusion that it would make a fart in the wind’s worth of difference as to whether the allies were going to win or not.

After having caused significant disruption to the minimization of suffering, they generally fled like roaches in the kitchen, never to be seen again, when the allies actually arrived. And the people of the town were left to scramble to try to do what they’d been trying to do for weeks, and sometimes getting shot for, while they’d still been around.

I think they have figured out that paying trolls $2 a day by the thousands, to influence the genuine public opinion, is a hell of a lot cheaper than bribing politicians. For one thing, the people sometimes have a habit of getting sick of the Georgescus of their country and ejecting them, and they wind up showing up all mopey on the streets of Moscow, asking when they’re going to get fed and housed.