Oh, they can win or at least achieve something they could sell as a victory to their domestic audience. Russia's biggest strength is that they have endless hoards of people who are for some reason more than happy to go die for the dreams of their leader. No amount of US support is going to change that.
No, they literally signed an agreement between each other which they kept secret and was only revealed during the Nuremberg trials. Soviets only started fighting "the nazis" when they themselves were attacked by Germany in 1941. What's hilarious is Russians are still in denial about their role in the war and teach that the war started in 1941, not 1939. Also to this day people can be fined for correctly pointing out details of the invasion.
If you are interested in USSR and exploring the now independent countries, I highly recommend a YouTube channel called "bald and bankrupt" [0]. It's essentially a travel vlog but the guy visits places that you would probably never visit yourself.
One interesting take away is that many people he asked say they lived much better under the Soviet rule than they're living now. I guess it's not that surprising given that for some countries it will take more than fifty years to catch up where they were before the collapse [1].
Oh, they can win or at least achieve something they could sell as a victory to their domestic audience. Russia's biggest strength is that they have endless hoards of people who are for some reason more than happy to go die for the dreams of their leader. No amount of US support is going to change that.