STOCKHOLM ¨C Russian President Vladimir Putin is obsessed with Ukraine ¡ª or, rather, with pretending that Ukraine doesn¡¯t exist.
In his annual call-in show on June 30, he claimed that ¡°Ukrainians and Russians are a single people.¡± He then published an article aimed at justifying that ¡°conviction,¡± by tracing the two countries¡¯ shared history. It is a masterclass in disinformation ¡ª and one step short of a declaration of war.
Putin begins his tale in Ancient Rus, where Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians were united by one language and ¡ª after the ¡°baptism of Russia¡± into the Orthodox religion ¡ª one faith until the fifteenth century. Even amid fragmentation, Putin writes, the people perceived Russia as their shared motherland.
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