Baker would have his readers believe that Putin woke up one morning and said it looked like a nice day to start a war. That’s not what happened. //

The timeline is clear. Biden comes into office, Zelensky feels emboldened to antagonize a much bigger and more powerful country under the belief that Ukraine will be protected by NATO (other nations’ armies and money), Russia reacts, and we end up funding Ukraine’s defense. //

As for Zelensky being a “dictator,” it’s not like he outlawed political opposition, shut down places of worship that had traditional ties to Russia, forced the closure of media outlets critical of his administration, and indefinitely suspended elections to keep himself in power. Wait, let me re-check my notes. Never mind. He did do all of that in a process known in permanent Washington as “democracy and freedom.”

When people like Peter Baker claim that it’s “rewriting” history to acknowledge the truth, what they really mean is that the propaganda they prefer has been a failure.