Why is Russia pretending to lose so badly? What trick are they pulling?

They’re not just losing, they’re getting humiliated. Owned by the peasants next door.

"in the event of a confrontation with NATO the best strategy for the Russians would be to draw as much NATO equipment to the borders of Russia as possible. Then using tactical nuclear weapons destroy this equipment and threaten to use your strategic deterrent to target the cities of NATO if they retaliate with nuclear weapons"

That's correct we in the West have threatened Russia's existence and now we get to die in a nuclear conflict with Russia. What we are doing is a disaster for the world. We are living through a nightmare folks and it's about to get much worse.

I figure there has to be a hidden plan at work. Some misdirection... is it true they sent their old tanks in first as bait, and they're still holding their real army behind, waiting? Waiting for what? For nato to get sucked in thanks to overconfidence, so they can knock Biden out once and for all? The more I think about it, the more it seems like that's the only thing that makes sense?

They are not pretending anything…your MSM is