Grigory Potemkin, lover of late 18th century Russian Empress Ekaterina II ("Katarina" in normalised euro-spell, and "Catherine" in anglo-speak) has a place in history for his action to hide the misery in rural Russia from the Empress on a journey to Crimea, by erecting empty façades of a seemingly prosperous village along her path, disassembling it and then erecting it again at another location further along their route. The act of painting a false and pretty picture to hide some ugly fact, or to create a false impression of something that doesn't exist, is now referred to as "erecting a Potemkin village" or "painting a Potemkin façade".
We see this tactic being used by Vladimir Putin in at least three ways right now. First, he pretends his army is strong and well equipped, and that his murderous "special operation" in Ukraine is going entirely according to plan. Obviously, none of this is true.
Second, he is claiming that the Russian economy is standing strong on its own, unfazed by the sanctions from practically every other country except China. This is clearly false. In actuality, the Russian economy is bleeding out, and the country is precariously close to defaulting on its foreign debt.
Third, and most shamefully, the Russian leadership is telling easily disproven bald-faced lies about their actions in Ukraine, claiming that they are not attacking civilian targets, that life proceeds as normal in the territories they have "liberated", and that Ukraine is faking the massive evidence of atrocious war crimes committed by Russian troops, or even that Russia is being blamed for acts of terror that Ukraine is somehow supposed to have committed against their own population.
Not even Potemkin himself tried to take his stunt this far, and we can safely assume that he did a better job with fabricating his lies. Why? Because doing worse would be impossible.
The propaganda coming from the Kremlin is demonstrably and obviously false, a complete fabrication, seemingly put together without even the slightest effort at making it believable. Vladimir Putin is desperate as his Potemkin village is now being viewed close up by the entire world. It wasn't well enough made to fool anyone even from far away, and the façades are largely not even there -- he just says they are, and expects people to take his word for it rather than believe their own eyes.
If it weren't so utterly horrible, it would be laughable. In any case, it's pathetic.
