Truth is again the first casualty of war. But it is not only official lies. It is at its worst when leaders believe their own propaganda, cannot believe that their prophecies have failed (Cognitive Dissonance), and burst their own bubbles all unawares. You may have noticed this in other Big Lie leaders of various countries who are being challenged by the movement for democracy, human rights, rule of law, and security around the world, including several in NATO countries and of course in the US.
Mistake #1: Being Putin
The first stage of karma is that when you act with malign intent, you create the conditions in your mind for your own suffering.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
Dhammapada
Zelenskyy 1, Putin -1000
Then you take it into the world of speech and action.
Hence the descent into ever-deeper tyranny within Russia, and into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine as elsewhere, with worse on the way. See, for example, those now shooting Russian deserters and “malingerers” who refuse to fight, and the Wagner Group of mercenary war criminals.
And then, sooner or later, it comes to the world of comeuppance.