When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, it managed to convince much of the world that Georgia had started the war - an absurd proposition given that Georgian troops never left Georgian territory.

When Russia annexed Crimea and invaded the Donbas in 2014, it persuaded much of the world to pretend that it was some sort of "civil war" among Ukrainians and that Moscow was not involved despite massive evidence to the contrary.

But with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine this year, very few are believing Vladimir Putin's hype. Few believe the fairy tales of Ukrainian Nazis and chemical weapons. And most understand that this is nothing but an unprovoked war of choice on Putin's part.

Russia's once-feared disinformation machine suddenly looks pathetic.

So what happened? And why? On the Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with veteran journalist Michael Weiss, news director at the New Lines magazine, contributing editor at The Daily Beast, and director of special investigations at the Free Russia Foundation, about Russia's flailing propaganda effort and the latest developments on the ground.