TASS, a prominent wire service in the Russian news media, has done a lot to help Russian President Vladimir Putin craft an alternate reality about what is happening along the country’s border with Ukraine. The service has featured a steady drumbeat of reports claiming hostile Ukrainian, NATO, and U.S. actions aimed at a “besieged” Russia and its occupied territories -- Crimea and the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk (DNR) and Luhansk (LNR).
