If tankies are pushed to criticise tankies, they’ll say “Well I suppose the problem with tankies is an inability to criticise any non-Western country, they think that all things Western and automatically bad and all things non-Western are automatically good”.
That’s what the Grayzone is. They try to minimise the badness of Putin and Assad to blame everything on the West. The West is not omnipotent; other countries have their share of the blame.
Although it’s an allegation overused by liberals, propaganda funded by Russian influences are a real thing. And the Grayzone certainly acts like one.
On the plus side, it’s done some important investigative work, like around the alleged Douma chemical attack: https://thegrayzone.com/2020/09/29/grayzones-aaron-mate-testifies-at-un-on-opcw-syria-cover-up/
This is a good answer