The dull and boring WW2 era maps are an aesthetic that I have enjoyed in WW2 strategy games, for what is worth.
All I mean by the ‘doesn’t matter’ point is that there is not a high bar for visual effects and that the GUI not be compromised in the process. It appears you’re aware of that already, so don’t get hung up on how it looks too much; dull and boring isn’t necessarily bad in this case.
They already stripped and/or barred Russians from becoming citizens a few years back, so this kind of follows that trajectory.
The argument from Lithuania as I understand it that purging Russians reduces the ‘protecting Russians abroad’ narrative from Putin. Though it does mean one less place where Russians who oppose Putin can go while also displacing potentially thousands of Russians into Putin’s other narrative that western/NATO powers are out to get them.
Hope this maneuver pays off, I guess.