Imagine the media room, smoke thick enough to slice with a knife, lights flickering, cameras always watching. Here we are, gripped by the theater. It's not Russia taking action; it's Putin—the boogeyman, the bear, the villain in the darkest coat. Just his name, and suddenly you see the Kremlin looming in shadows, icy winds blowing in from Siberia, the unmistakable chill of the Russian menace.

But here's the thing: it's propaganda, pure and simple. Nobody wants to wrestle with the faceless, bloodless concept of "the Russian government" or "the Russian state." Too dull, too bureaucratic, and far too complicated to fit in a headline or keep the ratings rolling. No, the public needs a face, a target, someone to fear and loathe, and who better than Vladimir Putin? He's been groomed for this role since he emerged from the murky pits of St. Petersburg's alleys, a Cold War antihero. They don't want a country, they want a villain.

"Putin" has become a brand, a boogeyman in a finely tailored suit, a punchline for the talking heads who need a face on the evil lurking behind the Kremlin walls. It's tidy, it's dramatic, and more than anything, it sticks. Because when it's "Putin did this" and "Putin ordered that," you can conjure up the whole Cold War thriller without boring the audience to tears with the details of geopolitics, public sentiment, or, god forbid, the nuanced machinery of Russia's actual political landscape. We're fed a steady drip of antihero narratives—individuals, not systems—because that's what makes the news punchy, profitable, and palatable.

So, we're fed Putin. The man, the myth, the monster, the convenient embodiment of every action, every threat, every flicker of Russian ambition. It's propaganda, baby, pure and undiluted, and it rolls down the airwaves like a goddamn freight train.

That's the story—a simple character, a digestible villain, and a narrative so simple, insidious, crafty, misleading, and propagandistic that it's almost criminal.

And we eat it up like rats devouring trash in the alley behind a New York Italian restaurant.