No, Putin didn’t say the West is controlled by Satanic pedophiles
During a 2013 speech, Vladimir Putin mentioned Satan and pedophilia, but he didn't say that the West is controlled by Satanic pedophiles.
Category USA
Read MoreNo, Putin didn’t say the West is controlled by Satanic pedophiles
Fake CNN screenshot misleads on war in Ukraine
Social media posts claim US broadcaster CNN misrepresented an image of a 2015 explosion as being from the 2022 war in Ukraine. But the image shows an explosion in Kyiv and was released by the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on February 24, 2022, and the channel said the alleged screenshot of a CNN report featured in the posts is fake.
Video with inaccurate subtitles does not show ‘Putin praising Pakistan PM Imran Khan’
A video has circulated in social media posts that claim it shows Russian President Vladimir Putin praising Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan after the two leaders met in Moscow on the day Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine. The clip was viewed hundreds of thousands of times in posts by Pakistan-based social media users. In fact, the video's English-language subtitles have been misleadingly altered. In the original clip, Putin was shown criticising Ukraine.
Footage shows Ukraine in 2022, not Russia in 2018
Social media posts claim US broadcaster ABC misrepresented a video of a 2018 gas explosion in Russia as footage from the war in Ukraine. This is false; the clip was shot in Ukraine by a Turkish news agency, and a similar video from AFP confirms that the incident took place following Russia's 2022 invasion of its eastern European neighbor.
Fake CNN tweet falsely reports first US casualty in Ukraine
Social media posts claim CNN lied to the public by tweeting that a man was the first US casualty in Ukraine after previously featuring the same photo in a post about his execution in Afghanistan. This is false; the network says the tweets are not from its official accounts, and the man pictured is a YouTube video game commentator who continues to livestream on the platform.
Posts falsely claim Steven Seagal with Russian forces in Ukraine
Social media posts feature an alleged CNN tweet that claims American actor Steven Seagal took up arms alongside Russian special forces in Ukraine. But CNN said the tweet -- which includes an image of Seagal in fatigues and carrying a weapon -- is fake, and his representatives also rejected the claim, saying the actor wants peace for both countries.
Fact-checking claims that NATO, US broke agreement against alliance expanding eastward
No legal agreement prohibits NATO from expanding eastward.
Russians have argued that comments made by U.S. and other Western leaders during the negotiations over the reunification of Germany constituted a promise that NATO would not extend beyond then-East Germany. Those allegations have sparked decades of debate amongst those involved in the events, and scholars studying them.
Even scholars who say they believe western powers did offer the Soviet Union assurances about NATO expansion say Owens' claim is misleading.
Our ruling
Owens said, "NATO (under direction from the United States) is violating previous agreements and expanding eastward."
There is an ongoing historical debate over comments that Western leaders, including Baker, made during post-Cold War negotiations, and whether what they said amounted to assurances that NATO would refrain from welcoming in countries closer to modern-day Russia.
But NATO as an organization made no such pledge, and the formal agreement signed at the end of those negotiations said nothing about the alliance not expanding eastward.
We rate this claim Mostly False.
Fact check roundup: What’s true and what’s false about the Russian invasion of Ukraine
False and misleading information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine has spread rapidly on social media since Russian forces launched a military assault in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 24.
Here’s a roundup of claims related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict analyzed by the USA TODAY Fact Check team.
There are no US-run biolabs in Ukraine, contrary to social media posts
There are no U.S.-run biological weapons labs operating in Ukraine.
The U.S. Defense Department and the Ukraine Ministry of Health have had a partnership since 2005 to improve public health laboratories and prevent the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases.
That effort is part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which began in 1991 to reduce the threat of existing weapons of mass destruction programs in former Soviet Republics.
Our ruling
A social media user tweeted that Russia was targeting U.S.-run biolabs in its invasion of Ukraine. That account was soon suspended by Twitter.
There are no U.S.-run biolabs in Ukraine. The country is one of many former Soviet Union republics, and other countries, partnering with the Defense Department as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. It's the latest claim in a series of disinformation efforts by the Russians, an expert told PolitiFact.
While the U.S. may provide funding to upgrade or build labs in other countries, the labs are run by the partnering nations and the program's goal is to prevent biological threats, not create them. We rate this claim False.
Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely claims Ukraine was ‘No. 1 donor’ to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign
Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign did not report receiving any donations from the Ukrainian government or Ukrainian nationals. Those donations would have been illegal.
A spokesperson for Marjorie Taylor Greene cited a 2015 Wall Street Journal graphic that has been frequently misrepresented online. The chart shows donations to the Clinton Foundation between 1999 and 2014 by the nationality of the individuals who made them; it does not say anything about donations to the foundation by foreign governments.
The Clinton Foundation said it has never received donations from Ukraine's government.
Our ruling
Greene said, "Ukraine was the No. 1 donor to Hillary Clinton when she was running for president."
Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign did not report any donations from Ukraine or Ukrainian nationals ' a move that would have broken the law. Asked for evidence to support Greene's claim, the congresswoman's spokesperson did not cite any campaign donations.
He pointed instead to a Wall Street Journal chart that mapped large individual donations between 1999 and 2014 to the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit organization. The chart was a ranking of the top foreign donors by nationality, not contributions from foreign governments.
The Clinton Foundation said it has never received any funding from the Ukrainian government.
We rate Greene's statement False.