President Obama has been rightly criticized for his penchant for taking “selfies” in recent years. “The Selfie Presidency for the Selfie Generation in a Selfie World. President Obama is that rightful king,” wrote the Washington Times.

It seems our Narcissist in Chief has a competitor for the title of Selfie King. This past week a Russian soldier with an obsession for taking selfies did more than just publicize his face. He unknowingly exposed a blatant lie that his country’s military  has maintained for months now. Meet Sergeant Selfie.

The lie that Sgt. Selfie has exposed is the assertion by Russian leaders that it has not been operating inside of the Ukraine. And although he is not the only Russian soldier posting to social media, the Russian soldier single-handedly proved that Russian soldiers are indeed crossing the border into Ukraine. By posting his selfies to the Russian version of Instagram, soldier Sanya Sotkin gave away the fact that two of his photos were taken from inside the Ukraine. The geo-tracking feature on Sotkin’s phone was turned on, and he inadvertently gave away his location.

The Russians have denied a number of other actions of late, most notably the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17. But apparently they have not denied a report of an incident that occurred on July 18. Just last night (Saturday evening), CNN reported that U.S. military officials told its reporter that on the day after the Malaysian plane crashed, a U.S. reconnaissance plane flew into Swedish airspace without permission. Indeed, one report says that the U.S. requested and was denied permission to enter Swedish airspace, but that the U.S. plane did it any way.

The unauthorized incursion into Swedish airspace occurred because the U.S. plane was being tracked from the ground by Russian radar–reportedly an unusual occurrence. Russia then sent up a fighter jet to intercept the U.S. plane, which reportedly had been in international airspace when the tracking began, prior to diverting into Swedish airspace.

To be clear, the U.S. plane was a spy plane, so this was not a commercial aircraft like the downed Malaysian flight. Still, there is no indication the U.S. plane was breaking any law (prior to entering Swedish airspace). Indeed, incidents like this serve to heighten the already palpable tension between the U.S. and Russia. One Russian lawmaker has already blamed our Nobel Peace Prize winning Obama for starting a new Cold War.

Maybe Obama should simply invite Putin to the White House to take a few shared selfies.