The morning that Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian television outlining his rationale for war. While concern for what was about to befall Ukrainians and Ukraine dominated many peoples’ minds, politicians and scholars alike were left scratching their heads at Putin’s stated justifications. Well-worn concerns about NATO expansion and Western influence were part of his offered rationale, but so too were humanitarian concerns—specifically, Russia’s need to combat far-right nationalism and neo-Nazi extremism in Ukraine and to stop Ukraine’s genocide of ethnic Russians. The former are well known central strategic concerns for Russia, the latter are products of a long-term disinformation and misinformation campaign by the Russian government. It is worth saying outright: there is no evidence of any kind of Ukrainian genocide against ethnic Russians. Nevertheless, Putin claimed:
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