A strange video is spreading on Telegram and Twitter: Hospice residents in Germany are allegedly getting tattoos of Putin to take him to his death as "living voodoo dolls." The whole thing is a fake.
Russia has lost as many as 25,000 soldiers in its invasion of Ukraine, with tens of thousands more injured, according to estimates from U.K. and U.S. officials.
Russia's economy will contract as much as 6% this year mostly because of international sanctions, the country's central bank predicted.
Thousands of educated professionals have fled the nation after the war began, according to news reports.
Our ruling
Putin stated that Russia has lost nothing since the country invaded neighboring Ukraine in February.
Russia has suffered many losses. As many as 25,000 Russian soldiers are estimated to have died. Indicators from within Russia show the Russian economy has been damaged by international sanctions resulting from the war. And experts say thousands of Russians from many professional backgrounds, including tech and academia, have fled the nation.
We rate Putin's claim False.
With Eastern Europe in turmoil following the invasion of Ukraine, a Facebook post shared hundreds of times claims Russian President Vladimir Putin is 'in South Africa'. The post includes a video broadcast showing Putin arriving in the country for alliance talks. However, this is misleading: the video was filmed in July 2018 ahead of the 10th summit of the BRICS group, which was hosted by South Africa.
Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed in Russian rocket attacks since February 24. Still, Vladimir Putin claims his soldiers don't attack civilian targets. The facts show quite the opposite.
The Politico newspaper, which Russian media claims published a story about an imminent peace treaty between the West and the Russian Federation, does not have a single article on this topic. Quite the contrary, the publication quotes many Western politicians who say that the United States and the European Union are committed to long-term support for Ukraine and do not see a possible to end the war in the near future.
Online articles and social media posts claim US-funded labs in Ukraine are developing biological warfare weapons, saying this is part of the justification for the Russian attack on its eastern European neighbor. But former US officials and non-proliferation experts say the labs are working to detect and prevent the spread of bioweapons, and have also helped in containing disease outbreaks.
Shortly after Russia launched its brutal war against Ukraine, rumors began circulating about Vladimir Putin's health. It's not the first time.
An image of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been shared thousands of times online alongside a claim he "has started to wear a bulletproof vest" after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Part of Putin's wrinkled suit jacket was circled in the posts as evidence for the claim. The photo has been shared in a false context: it has circulated in reports since mid-2017, almost five years before Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
By Zviad Adzinbaia, for CEPA
Russia's failed invasion of Ukraine can pave the way to ending the Kremlin's weaponized disinformation against the West.
Twitter limited more than 300 Russian government accounts last month, including that of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The move followed the European Union's (EU) 27 February ban on Russia's two state-run propaganda outlets, RT and Sputnik, three days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Meta followed by "restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU."
These measures set a precedent to clear Russia's disinformation networks from Western media and social media space.
A nuclear threat from Ukraine? A Ukrainian invasion of Crimea? Ukrainian neo-Nazis? Russian President Vladimir Putin's May 9 speech contained new and familiar accusations amid the war in Ukraine. Most of them are false.