FVA English to Russian Art/Literary History War

Подскажите, как лучше в этом случае перевести "pay the bill"?
До этого фрагмента автор пишет о том, что, хотя большевистскую пропаганду сначала не воспринимали всерьез, со временем ее стали жадно поглощать, за неимением более достоверного источника информации. Британская пропаганда была слишком "перецензурена" и не имела политической ценности.

As a matter of fact these Russians through the Bolsheviki had the latest gossip on the peace parleys and their interest in the subject was very keen. They hate the Germans, but their eyes were fixed not on that hatred, but on an ideal, a hope. And now they were being disillusioned, let down. It had remained for Bolshevist propaganda to tell them that their dream was not coming true.
And British propaganda! The Bolsheviki might well have paid the bill, and it was a substantial one. The great themes about which this propaganda was built were:
The Size of the British Empire,
The Strength of the British Navy,
The Growth of the British Army since 1914,
The British Empire at War,
The Charitableness of British Royalty,
and latterly the severity of terms demanded of Germany. Great piles of sheets of old war pictures with Russian captions were scattered broadcast upon a war-bored population, and Russian editions of a transparently over-censored news communique which told who dined with the King, who got the Order of the Garter, who was responsible for the great war, how bad the Bolsheviki are, and how the great international game of cricket is getting on.