From diplomatic deception to puppet master fabrications, the Kremlin manipulation playbook may evolve on the surface but its fundamentals remain unchanged.

On Tuesday, 18 March, Putin and US President Donald Trump had a telephone conversation discussing a potential 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. A proposal that Ukraine had already endorsed during US-Ukraine talks in Jeddah.

The Kremlin published a readout of Tuesday’s call which offers a masterclass in information manipulation. The carefully crafted manipulative Kremlin narrative deceitfully positions Putin as a ‘rational peacemaker’ while effectively turning the ceasefire offer down yet again and embedding multiple long-standing propaganda narratives about Ukraine.

This is entirely consistent with Moscow’s three-year-long strategy of attempting to claim ownership over the peace narrative while relentlessly pursuing war.