Matt Taibbi Apologizes for Insisting Russia Wouldn’t Invade Ukraine: ‘When You’re Wrong, You’re Wrong’

Over the last few weeks, Rolling Stone star journalist and Substacker Matt Taibbi has been one of the loudest voices insisting that warnings of Russian aggression against Ukraine were mainly dishonest hype and that such an invasion was extremely unlikely.

But then, Russia went and invaded Ukraine on Wednesday night. And on Thursday, Taibbi wrote a mea culpa for his substack readers, admitting he got the whole thing wrong and apologizing.

“Part of news and even commentary is admitting mistakes, and though I always made sure when discussing the subject to note Vladimir Putin could still invade Ukraine, I have to admit, I didn’t see this happening. Some old colleagues I trust, including some Putin-critical Russians, didn’t see it, either, but in many cases they just didn’t want to believe it, for reasons that are more understandable from their perspective,” Tabbi wrote.

“My mistake was more like reverse chauvinism, being so fixated on Western misbehavior that I didn’t bother to take this possibility seriously enough. To readers who trust me not to make those misjudgments, I’m sorry,” he continued. “Obviously, Putin’s invasion will have horrific consequences for years to come and massively destabilize the world.”

“I fear there will be more to say soon, but I’ll leave it at that for today. When you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and I was wrong about this,” Taibbi concluded.

Previously Taibbi had dismissed warnings of an imminent invasion as “information warfare,” and responded to critics by calling warnings “baseless” and “a big international PR win” for Putin.