Putin Lies

Marc Ambinder: “Of all the things he could have said, the idea that he would fill a press conference with so many outright falsehoods is interesting. He could have been genuinely conciliatory. He could have described, correctly, a Russian fear that fascist elements will control any new Ukrainian government. He could have explained that Russia has a special and long-standing tradition of protecting its culture and heritage in a way that sometimes requires special measures.”

“Instead, he just lied. They were lies strapped together in a familiar, if still unusual, way. They are KGB lies, or the type of lies that Putin was trained to tell. They are lies intended for a hypothetical audience of sympathizers around the world, lies intended to undermine the West.”