conspiracy theories in the post-soviet war. i spoke to him earlier. thanks so much for joining us. i want to talk about your new york times op-ed in just a moment. vladimir putin said russia and ukraine achieved serious negotiations in istanbul but the situation changed, in his words, dramatically following the allegations against russia of war crimes in bucha. does it come as any surprise to you that putin is completely denying responsibility for what happened in bucha? not at all. i think it is done specifically to muddy the wars again. there is a clear war lobby in russia that probably pressures putin and delivers reports and certain information so he can make a decision. and certainly the massacres in
bucha really changed the rules of the game. first of all because it s pretty hard to deny what s been done by the russian army. and to the narratives, what happened in bucha on the side of the kremlin were constantly changing. if you look at what s being said by the kremlin in the first days after the events in bucha, the kremlin spokesmen were saying, look, it s all staged. it s fake. there were bodies that were moving on the footage. now they ve changed this narrative again. your op-ed for the new york times is fascinating because it examines conspiracy theories that vladimir putin has essentially weaponized. that always existed in russia, but that putin didn t himself, didn t really seem to embrace or promote. that was left to others. but now you write, conspiratorial thinking has taken complete hold of the country from top to bottom, now seems to be the motivating force behind the kremlin s decisions. and mr. putin, who previously kept his distance from