“WE HEAR THAT WE STARTED THE WAR IN DON-bas, Ukraine—No.” Russian President Vladimir Putin says grimly to the camera, flanked by the colors of the Russian flag. “It was unleashed by the collective West, which organized and supported the unconstitutional armed coup in Ukraine in 2014, and then encouraged and justified genocide on the people of Donbas.”
This clip—in which Putin advances blatant misinformation about the origins of the war that he, in fact, started—appears at the beginning of a polished, 30-minute documentary on You-Tube channel iEarlGrey, which according to Russian state media, is run by independent journalist Mike Jones. The channel’s logo is embedded in the video, but Jones is not its creator. The film was produced by Russian propaganda outlet RT and was first published on its documentary website, , a fact NewsGuard easily confirmed by comparing iEarlGrey’s You-Tube upload to the branded RT documentary on . On YouTube, iEarlGrey’s republished RT film racked up 43,000 views in three months and contains no RT branding, nor any warning that the content is Russian propaganda.
