A lot of Americans take what they want to hear at face value as well, no matter how absurd it would be to the neutral outsider. The only difference may be that in America, at least there are usually at least two different points of view, each with their own crazy followers. In Russia, it seems it is only Putin's point of view, or at least the point of view he wants to promote. I'm not so sure if all Russians are drinking the Cool-Aid, but those who don't buy into the Propaganda, cannot express themselves openly for fear of being publicly "outed" as some kind of "foreign alien agent".