Filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova’s controversial new documentary, “Russians at War,” which made its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week, should be seen for what it is: Moscow’s latest attempt to skirt sanctions and influence western audiences with a sanitized view of its devastating war in Ukraine.

This is nothing new. In the century since radio and television emerged, all dictators have relied on propaganda. Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin had Pravda and TASS. For Mao Zedong, it was the People’s Daily and China Central Television. Adolf Hitler, of course, had an entire menagerie of shameless propagandists under Joseph Goebbels, including filmmakers like Leni Riefenstahl.