Fulfilling the first step of putting all of Eastern Europe under the Kremlin’s control like it’s 1939, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially proclaimed Russian has illegally annexed four Ukrainian districts that conducted a sham referendum earlier this week, the Washington Post reports.
Putin declared the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine to now be a part of Russia, although the regions are not under Russian military control as Ukraine stages a punishing counteroffensive and retakes territory. Only a handful of the world’s nation–like Turkmenistan, Belarus and likely Saudi Arabia–with recognize Russian claims to the territory.
In a list of grievances that would make a Republican proud, Putin took the opportunity to blame “Anglo-Saxons” for the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream II pipeline this week, a move that injected tons of methane into the air and water causing an environmental catastrophe.