
For Putin, history is a weapon — and Ukraine is the target
In July 2021, Putin penned a history-laden pamphlet arguing that Ukrainians and Russians are kindred nations, artificially divided by outsiders.
The cherry-picked historical narratives and outright distortions were Putin's casus belli for an all-out war. Seven months later, Putin's Russia was bombing Ukraine, illegally "annexing" large swathes of territory while killing untold thousands of people in the name of historical revisionism.
Since then, the Russian leader has continued to draw on pas


















