Russian Big Lie Watch: Lost Paratroopers in Ukraine

After Russian paratroopers were captured in Ukraine in late August 2014, they were quickly swapped for Ukranian prisoners of war. /AFP image

Big Lie: Ten Russian paratroopers captured recently in Ukraine "really did participate in a patrol of the Russian-Ukranian border, crossed it by accident at an unmarked section, and as far as we understand showed no resistance," the Russian Defense Ministry said according to the BBC.

Closer to the truth: "This wasn't a mistake, but a special mission they were carrying out," a Ukranian military spokesman said.

Ukraine bulwark against Russian aggression

A resident reacts to shelling damage in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, in August 2014. /CTV News image

Ukraine is a fledgling democracy, and young governments of the people are more imperfect than their mature counterparts such as Australia, Switzerland and the United States.

Vladimir Putin's Russia is imperfection incarnate.

The Russian president, ex-KGB officer, Judo expert and all-star power monger has pushed his James Bondesque villain game to an Ivan the Terrible level. In 2014, Putin has racked up a string of stains on humanity, from exterminating dogs at Sochi during the Winter Olympics to launching an aggressive war against Ukraine.

Putin's Russia, which ranks as an authoritarian regime in indexes of democracy, appears determined to re-establish key elements of the Soviet Union, including large chunks of Ukraine.

This is starting to look a lot like Stalin's Russia.

Russian tanks are invading an Eastern European country and the Kremlin has dusted off a propaganda tool imported from Nazi Germany during World War II: The Big Lie. Joseph Goebbels, who operated Hitler's propaganda machine, was the master of the WWII whopper: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

For weeks, the Russians have been deploying The Big Lie about their military activity on Ukrainian soil. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shamelessly fired up the propaganda machine, claiming NATO satellite photos showing heavily armed Russian military units conducting operations inside Ukraine had "turned out to be from video games."

NATO satellite imagery reportedly shows Russian military units operating inside eastern Ukraine.