Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday cited a 17th-Century map of Europe to back his discredited thesis that Ukraine isn't a real country, a claim that he's used to justify Russia's unprovoked invasion.
But, even on the terms of Putin's thesis, there was a problem: the document clearly marks part of the territory as being "Ukraine."
In a meeting with the chairman of Russia's constitutional court, Valery Zorkin, the two pored over a map made by a 17th century cartographer for France's King Louis XIV.
The Kremlin published a video of the encounter, in which Putin and Zorkin hold the map up as proof that a Ukrainian nation is a historical fiction.
The map Putin inspected appears to be a copy of one made in 1674 by French cartographer Hubert Jaillot, showing parts of eastern Europe and Asia, with cities and territories marked out.
Putin seized on the map to back one of the core arguments he has made in support of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine — that it's not a real country and so should be incorporated into Russia.
"The Soviet government created Soviet Ukraine. This is well known to everyone. Until then, there was never any Ukraine in the history of humanity," Putin said.
