referendum to officially annex the black sea outpost, admitting it all a year later. translator: i gave orders to the defense ministry. why hide it? to deploy special force, of the gru as well as military facilities in crimea. it s important to remember all this because it provides the context for the current escalation. and provides evidence for why only a fool would take russian assurances at their word. there are larger conversations to be had about the politics of nato expansion and eurasian balance of power. but there s no excuse for being willfully blind about putin s lies. also, back in 2014, we didn t have prominent anchors on right wing talk tv actively enabling putin. now we do. why should the average american care about the territorial integrity of ukraine. why would we say ukraine s side