I believe the implication is that these people are part of a psy-op from Russia. It was a common theme of online discourse during Trump's presidency, with some decent factual evidence to back it up iirc. Many pro trump accounts on Twitter were suspected of being operatives, or even just bots, for example.
It's kinda stale as a reference, but there is still a significant chance that these kinds of accounts still exist and engage in spreading disinfo.
In general, yes. Authoritarianism is usually a sign of desire for a strong man, any strong man. They might not want to directly support Russia, but they like/respect Putin.