A small collection of Putin propaganda lies:
Zelensky disappeared? Nope.
Let’s go back to the beginning, to the first Big Lie that Moscow told after the Feb. 24 invasion was launched. By the following morning, multiple Russian Internet publications close to the Kremlin were reporting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had disappeared, most likely escaped to London, where he allegedly held real estate property. According to the reports, much of the top echelon of Ukrainian leadership had likewise fled Kyiv, leaving the poor, abandoned Ukrainians to scatter into basements to hide from the advancing and inevitable takeover of the invincible Russian army.
That evening of Feb. 25, Zelensky recorded a video in front of the main government building of Kyiv, surrounded by members of his government, naming each and saying that each was “here.” It arguably remains the single defining moment of the war, not only for its display of Ukrainian resolve and the launch of Zelensky as a remarkable wartime leader — but also because it so quickly and calmly discredited the false narrative of Russia’s invasion.
Chemical weapons? Nope.
More sweeping fake news stories were also planted about Ukraine producing chemical weapons and plotting with Washington to welcome NATO bases on its territory. Indeed, the narrative often places the Americans at the center, pulling the strings in Kyiv in what is portrayed as the continuation of the longstanding U.S. aggression against Mother Russia.
The domestic audience again appeared the main target of Tuesday’s “state of the nation” speech, where Putin again blamed the West for the war and wanting to destroy Russia. "They intend to transform a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation. This is exactly how we understand it all and we will react accordingly, because in this case we are talking about the existence of our country."
Greeting invading Russians with flowers? Nope.
The Russian intelligence establishment told him that Ukrainians would surrender, the army would disperse, and village locals would come out with flowers to greet the Russian soldiers; the world would turn a blind eye to the takeover of the country as it did in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea; the generals lied to him about the strength and readiness of the Russian army and the military hardware.
One year into a war that was supposed to last three days, Putin has no choice but to continue to blame the West for a war that he, objectively, started. "I want to repeat: it was they who unleashed the war," Putin said Tuesday. "And we continue to use force to stop it."
Repeating a lie doesn’t make it true — and in this case, at least, it makes the liar look weak.
