I loved watching Russell this season. He grew more and more on me with each episode. In my opinion, he played one of the best strategic games ever and arguably he deserved to win but I thought he showed very little class and took away the spotlight from Natalie's victory.
What Russell doesn't understand is that he lied, he manipulated, and he played a very underhanded game as well. Not everyone is going to respect that and not everyone will see that as someone being deserving of the million dollars. Many people have won this game by not being as big of a manipulator as he was. He didn't have to try and make alliances with Monica, Brett, and Laura just to "cover himself." He didn't have to lie to Jaison and Shambo when it came to voting them out but pretending like he wasn't.
Although I don't necessarily feel that Natalie should've won, hey, she was a very likeable person, she didn't play the same cunning games that Russell played, and she did show herself to be a power at times(certain challenges and helping get Eric out, which was a pretty big move at the time).
I just thought Russell should've shown more class and maturity rather than begging Natalie to make it so Probst would call him the "sole survivor" and saying how he deserved the money over Natalie even after she won? C'mon man, lose with dignity, lose with grace.
I think Russell thought he had it in the bag but he didn't realize that his offering promises to every single person would eventually lead to his downfall.
When he got the 100K, that finally shut him up but he should learn something about humility.