The oligarchs in the US and servant states, keep repeating the same dishonest, lying techniques for decades and this time the whole of the news Media has been repeating the same accusations against Vladimir Putin, as they used against Saddam Hussein and the nonexistent WMD's and other leaders like M Noriega in the past.
What the Western MS Media disseminates is a narrative to convince (brainwash) the electorate to support their US government's actions (in order to resolve having the largest debts in the world). These debts are unpayable using only US resources, so the US civilian authorities are using their military strength to coopt and force Venezuela and Russia to give up their natural wealth resources for the US government to be able to pay back its own US debts.
It is important to note this time the Pentagon has not been willing to go along the US civilian leader's narrative of a successful limited nuclear confrontation and have been pointing out the danger of direct nuclear conflict with Russia - China They realize any major atomic blasts in the world could trigger a "nuclear winter" ending life on earth.