Today Vladimir Putin held a joint press conference with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Moscow. In it, Putin expressed hurty-feelings over the way his BFF Bashar Assad was being accused of a chemical weapons attack on a civilian target:

We have reports from multiple sources that false flags like this one – and I cannot call it otherwise – are being prepared in other parts of Syria, including the southern suburbs of Damascus. They plan to plant some chemical there and accuse the Syrian government of an attack.
…
President Mattarella and I discussed it, and I told him that this reminds me strongly of the events in 2003, when the US representatives demonstrated at the UN Security Council session the presumed chemical weapons found in Iraq. The military campaign was subsequently launched in Iraq and it ended with the devastation of the country, the growth of the terrorist threat and the appearance of Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS] on the world stage.

This lie, like the seed in the Parable of the Sower, falls on fertile ground:

Noam Chomsky Warns of ‘Staged Attack’ Two Days Before Syria Bombing https://t.co/xvg50EufrQ Pentagon Either Russia MSNBC AUMF

— Web Line News (@WebLineNews) April 7, 2017

Ron Paul: Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria Likely a False Flag – https://t.co/GxZlil0rQe pic.twitter.com/7u25NlUG9l

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 6, 2017

Syria Gas Attack Is Almost Certainly a ‘False Flag’ https://t.co/bHQ4qW20n7 via @PopResistance

— Eva Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) April 7, 2017

Back when a disgruntled Austrian paper-hanger was cooling his heels in Landsberg Prison for trying to overthrow the German government, he wrote a little-known book called “Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice.” In it he makes this observation about lying:

All this was inspired by the principle—which is quite true within itself—that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.

It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

Adolf Hitler may get credit for inventing the term “Big Lie” but Russia is where it was raised to an art form.