I do think Russell let his true personality through a couple times, and it did not come off as the world's greatest guy. We got to meet Brandon's dad, too, and the entire Hantz clan struck me as pretty dysfunctional.
I don't think there is any evidence that Russell is like an actually evil person, though. His ability to actually commend other players who made good moves always impressed me--like when he said Parvati actually deserved to win, and that Sandra burning his hat was a great move, and that Rob played a great game in that one where Rob played a great game.
You also can't deny the brutal efficiency of Russell's strategy. His moves the first two times were just amazing. I mean, in a head-to-head strategic battle, he totally wrecked Rob and Tyson, who had a supermajority at the time!
Russell's third outing, it wasn't even his fault he was voted out, because his tribe decided they would rather all lose the game then put up with him for another day. So they all lost the game!