Top Fact Checks
Latest Statements
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![Alexey Kazakov]()
Alexey Kazakov
Rossiya-24 TV Presenter
“As the saying goes, [Metro Exodus] is a tall tale topped with Russophobia.”
Read more...Russian state media has lambasted the Metro Exodus video game for allowing players to take aim at statues of Vladimir Lenin. But from Russian President Putin to far-right bloggers, taking pot shots at the Soviet leader is a national past time. -
![Russian U.K. Embassy Official Twitter Account]()
Russian U.K. Embassy Official Twitter Account
Official social media account
“@BBC’s Syria producer @Dalatrm admits ‘Assad sarine attack in #Douma was staged’. Remarkable that British MSM chose to ignore it. No breaking news, no articles, nothing.”
Read more...The Russian Embassy tweet shows the BBC producer’s claims that footage from the hospital in Douma was staged, without showing his other tweet where he says a chemical attack did happen. Also, initially sarin use was suspected, but this changed to chlorine as more evidence became available. -
![Svobodnaya Pressa]()
Svobodnaya Pressa
Russian News Outlet
“USA Air Forces: ‘Thanks very much to the Russians for taking Crimea”
Read more...None of the U.S. Air Forces’ commanders or representatives, including General Tod Wolters, ever said the words cited in the Russian media outlet. -
![Dmitry Medvedev]()
Dmitry Medvedev
Russian Prime Minister
“The latest wave of anti-Russian sanctions is related not to our relations with the Americans but to the domestic problems in the United States.”
Read more...Russia's PM claims a tougher version of anti-Russian sanctions proposed last year is a “domestic” U.S. affair, unrelated to bilateral ties. But while efforts to pass sanctions in the U.S. have hit domestic hurdles, the sanctions themselves were drafted in reaction to Moscow’s international acts. -
![RIA Novosti]()
RIA Novosti
Russian state-owned media outlet
“‘Not Odessa, but Kotsyubeyev!’ Why does Kyiv erase the real names of cities”
Read more...While Ukraine’s “decommunization” law is not without controversy, countries have the right to rename cities and other geographical features as they wish. Nothing in the law requires new city names to be based on historical titles. -
![Vyacheslav Volodin]()
Vyacheslav Volodin
Chairman of the Russian State Duma
“It is important, [Volodin] said, ‘not to close, not to cut off, but to ensure the security of the internet in the Russian Federation’.”
Read more...Despite attempts at assuring the Russian public that the draft law on the Digital Economy National Program is not intended to “cut off” Russia from the world, critics fear Russia’s own “Great Firewall” is in the offing. -
![Roscosmos and Russian Academy of Sciences]()
Roscosmos and Russian Academy of Sciences
“It is considered necessary ... to develop a plan for legal support of the interests of the Russian Federation in possible territorial disputes and to instruct specialized universities to train the necessary number of specialists in space law.”
Read more...The United Nations Outer Space Treaty prohibits any national appropriation or occupation of celestial bodies and outer space resources. However, “loopholes” in the law can be used for such claims in the future. -
![Yuri Trutnev]()
Yuri Trutnev
Deputy Prime Minister, Russia
“In my view, they’ve taken control of all sales markets. If scientists believe that this doesn’t cause damage, then why, actually, should the Americans sell these killer whales to the Chinese market, and why not Russia?”
Read more...In the United States, orcas and belugas are protected from commercial and sports hunting under multiple laws and regulations. Capturing and exporting the whales is illegal in the U.S. -
![Rossiya 1]()
Rossiya 1
State-owned Russian television channel
“Manufactured Crisis! Venezuelan ‘Refugees’ in Columbia Come for Day-Long Shopping Trips!”
Read more...An aid convoy blocked and tens of thousands of Venezuelans crossing the border every day to get food and medicine, a Rossiya 1 correspondent at the Colombian border town of Cucuta reports a “Manufactured Crisis” – saying that people are taking “shopping trips.” But the facts show otherwise. -
![Vyacheslav Volodin]()
Vyacheslav Volodin
Speaker of the State Duma
“A bill of [the] Verkhovna Rada that restricts the rights of observers at the elections of the President of Ukraine violates the international law.”
Read more...While Ukraine's banning of Russian citizens from entering the country to take part in the OSCE election monitoring mission is "without precedent," it does not violate international law, and there will still be OSCE observers. Only two members of the team were Russian citizens. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
President, Russian Federation
“We proceed from the premise that Russia will not place intermediate-range or shorter-range weapons … either in Europe or in other regions of the world as long as U.S. weapons of this kind do not appear in corresponding regions of the world.”
Read more...Despite the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed Russia won’t deploy such weapons “in Europe” if the U.S. does the same. There is evidence Russia already has done so. -
![Alexander Brod]()
Alexander Brod
Member of the Presidential Human Rights Council
“These [Freedom House] reports are politically motivated and are used as an additional element of pressure on the country … they made a bogeyman out of Russia and constantly throw in negative information.”
Read more...Russian officials label reports by independent watchdog groups as politically motivated. But Freedom House’s report finds a steady decline in freedom around the world over the last 13 years, and raises the alarm particularly about threats to democracy in the United States. -
![RT (Russia Today)]()
RT (Russia Today)
State-owned media outlet
“The Russian economy has seen the biggest growth since 2012, expanding by 2.3 percent last year, according to preliminary estimates provided by [the] Russian state statistics agency.”
Read more...The statistics are contradicted by numerous independent analyses and have even been questioned by senior Russian officials. The past head of the responsible government agency was recently dismissed. -
![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Spokesperson, Russian Foreign Ministry
"We are seeing a massive campaign on Russian information resources in Germany. It is being conducted with the German state’s participation, and a campaign is being staged to suppress the voice of the Russian and Russian language media."
Read more...The German press’s criticism of Russia Today (RT) Deutsch and Sputnik is not a staged campaign but the reaction of independent journalists against Kremlin’s use of media means for propaganda purposes and disinformation. Similar concerns arise in France and Britain.
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