Much has been made of the South African government's close ties to Russia following news that the country will host Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2023. But images suggesting Putin congratulated former president Jacob Zuma on his birthday - on live TV - are fabricated.
Verdict: False
The video was created by the non-partisan anti-corruption organization, RepresentUs. A spokesperson for the organization confirmed the footage of Putin included in the video was not real.
Did Vladimir Putin recently go to South Africa, defying the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court? That's the claim made by at least two videos that have been shared thousands of times on TikTok and Facebook since late March. This footage, however, is old and doesn't in any way prove that Putin has recently travelled to South Africa.
This information is fake. The White House did not permit Ukraine to strike Russian territory. On the contrary, the White House's National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby stated that the US does not 'enable or encourage' the Ukrainian Forces to strike outside Ukraine and will only assist the Ukrainian Forces in liberating their territories. Moreover, there are no new Russian territories, only the Ukrainian territories illegally occupied and annexed by Russia.
After the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant last month for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a video re-emerged on social media claiming to show him arriving in South Africa for an official visit. But this is false: the video was filmed in July 2018 ahead of the 10th summit of the BRICS group, which South Africa hosted. AFP Fact Check previously debunked a similar claim about the video a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russia is taking its turn in a rotating leadership position within the U.N. That doesn't mean Putin is now president of the organization.
A strange image has gone viral. Did Vladimir Putin really get down on one knee and kiss the hand of Xi Jinping? No. The picture, which was allegedly taken during the Chinese leader's recent trip to Russia, is fake.
Did Vladimir Putin really use a body double during his recent visit to Mariupol, Ukraine? That's the question posed by several posts that began circulating on social media on March 20, 2023. However, while these posts claim to show evidence of physical differences in the president's face, the images they rely on are far from conclusive.
A recent blog post builds on a fictitious narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin is stymieing the production of adrenochrome in Ukraine.......We found no credible news reports or sources to corroborate the unfounded allegations, which were published on Real Raw News, a site that regularly posts fake news. The blog's stories are written by someone using a pseudonym and the site has a disclaimer saying it contains "humor, parody and satire," though the author has defended his stories as truth.
The same site wrote separately that Putin intercepted a shipment of adrenochrome bound for the United States. We rated that Pants on Fire!......We rate claims that Putin destroyed an adrenochrome warehouse in Ukraine Pants on Fire!
On February 24, 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion into Ukraine, triggering a war on the ground, but also an information war online. Since then, the FRANCE 24 Observers team has debunked 115 pieces of misinformation that have been shared in photos or videos online. But what are the main themes in these false narratives? And what techniques are used to misinform? Here's a look back at this year in fake news.