While the plastic gadgets are wasteful, they don't hold a candle to all the unnecessary food packaging that's used. Just tear apart one of your garbage bags, and see how much is food-related packaging and how much is gadgets.
I visited the US (WV) recently, and I was appalled by how much waste goes unrecycled. At home (Europe) our family produces one bag of unrecycled waste every 2 weeks, in WV we produced 6 bags in 2 weeks, and that's while living in European style (refillable water bottles, declining plastic bags for groceries, buying unpackaged produce, etc.).
I'm not confident it is a Russian op, but Russia has always fueled both sides of the political spectrum. They don't necessarily want one side to prevail, they just want their opponents to be divided.