There is plenty to blame Russia for. But here in the West a pattern continues of blaming Russia prior to an investigation, or even despite one. Blame Russia, whatever the facts.

In a recent Foreign Affairs essay, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz takes advantage of the general ignorance of his readership in order to rewrite history. In a section that blames Putin for deflating the promise of partnership and peace in a world order that should have followed the end of the Cold War, Scholz charges that, in 2008, “Russia launched a war against Georgia.”

Many of Scholz’s readers will take him at his word, especially because they have been primed for it by the Western media for many years. But Scholz knows that his testimony is a lie. A European Union Independent Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia found at the time that Georgia, not Russia, had launched the attack.