Top Fact Checks
Latest Statements
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![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian presidential spokesperson
"The report contains no proven evidence that Russia allegedly interfered in the election process in the United States.”
Read more...The report by the special counsel on Russian interference in the 2016 election does contain evidence that Russia interfered in the election in several ways. However, much of the evidence establishing interference came in earlier indictments by Mueller and the U.S. Intelligence Community’s reports. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
Russian president
“Well, everything seems normal with gasoline, only a 0.16 percent increase (in prices).”
Read more...Vladimir Putin’s claim contradicts both Russian government data and independent reports regarding the dynamics of retail prices for gasoline, showing that the president’s statistic is significantly lower than the actual increase. -
![TASS]()
TASS
Russian state-owned news agency
“The train consists of 18 railway cars that are displaying over 500 trophies from Syria that include the armor and engineering vehicles, artillery guns, armored vehicles, bladed weapons and firearms, improvised implosive devices and terrorists’ gear and outfits.”
Read more...The exhibit claims all the material was captured from “terrorists.” However, it contains several distortions that support Kremlin narratives about Syria. -
![Tatiana Golikova]()
Tatiana Golikova
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister
“In 2005, our mortality rate was 16.1 per 100,000 people. We managed to reduce it by 23%... We have reduced mortality from cardiovascular diseases by 37%, from road accidents – by 54.5%, from tuberculosis – by four times.”
Read more...While the overall mortality rate in Russia has decreased in the last 14 years, still Russia's ranks in comparison with global indicators are higher than average. Moreover, the prognosis for the next 15 years are pessimistic. -
![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokespersons
"Can NATO bring anyone closer? History does not know any such examples. What I can see is that NATO is adding new members, who are now being pulled in by various methods.”
Read more...NATO membership is based on invitation and approval by existing member states. Countries must meet certain standards to be eligible. -
![Sergey Lavrov]()
Sergey Lavrov
Russia’s foreign minister
“When Montenegro and Macedonia were out of the blue dragged into NATO, the situation with Macedonia’s name was used in a brazen manner. They held a referendum organized in gross violation of the constitution, which in Macedonia requires a referendum to put forward only one question, but they put forward three: do you want to be a member of the European Union, a member of NATO, and are you ready to change the name of the country for that. In general, a fraudulent question, of course.”
Read more...The referendum on North Macedonia’s name was called according to the country's constitution. Candidates for NATO membership must apply to join the Alliance, not the other way round. Macedonia had met the criteria for NATO membership ten years before receiving an invitation. -
![Alexander Yakovenko]()
Alexander Yakovenko
Russian ambassador to the UK
“That’s the story of the British press and also the government, but unfortunately it’s not supported by the facts. First of all they gave an interview with Russian television and they said officially they are not part of the GRU … Second, the British side could have an opportunity to question them, but they were never asked for that.”
Read more...Russia’s ambassador to the UK recently spoke with Sky News to refute claims that Moscow was behind the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England. But while Yakovenko says there is no proof to back up the British claims, the facts show otherwise. -
![Margarita Simonyan]()
Margarita Simonyan
Managing editor of RT and Rossiya Segodnya
“Kindly Ecuador, which today surrendered Assange to the police, demanded that the British not extradite him to the country where he faces death penalty – i.e. the States. A few years ago Assange told me the UK will extradite him to Sweden and [from] Sweden to the U.S. Precisely where he is under the threat of the death penalty.”
Read more...Russian state media managing editor's claim is baseless: at this point, the maximum punishment for the charges brought against Assange in the U.S. is five years imprisonment. Besides, in the U.S. justice system, a person is innocent until proven guilty. -
![Sergey Lavrov]()
Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
“The reason for the Libyan crisis lies in NATO’s actions in 2011. Precisely since that time, Libya has turned into a failed state and a ’black hole,’ through which terrorists, the smuggling of weapons, go south, and to the north - flows of illegal migrants.”
Read more...While there are varying opinions on the legality and effect of NATO’s intervention in Libya, NATO was not the cause of the crisis in Libya. NATO’s Operation Unified Protector was launched in response to a UN resolution regarding the ongoing civil war there. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian Presidential Spokesman
"Russian President Vladimir Putin has said more than once that for settling the conflict in Donbass the most important thing is not dialogue with Moscow, because Moscow is not a party to this conflict. It is an intra-Ukrainian conflict and it is up to the Ukrainians to settle it, if they talk to each other."
Read more...Ukrainian presidential hopeful Volodymyr Zelenskiy opened the door to talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in eastern Ukraine. Putin’s spokesman said talks would be fine, although “Moscow is not a party to the conflict.” The facts show otherwise. -
![Andrei Koshkin]()
Andrei Koshkin
Head of the Plekhanov Academy’s political science and sociology department
“In Ukraine, there is an extremely difficult situation with the supply of ships to the Navy: there are practically no such deliveries, and what NATO countries share with them is, in essence, junk.”
Read more...The ships that NATO nations are providing to the Ukrainian navy technologically are more advanced and in a better shape than most of the Soviet-made vessels in Russia’s own navy. Experts say the NATO-provided ships significantly enhance the Ukrainian navy’s capabilities. -
![Sergey Lavrov]()
Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
“I’ve repeatedly said that as soon as Edward Snowden chose freedom – refused to fly to where he was threatened with the electric chair – the Americans immediately began trying to punish us.”
Read more...Apart from the rhetoric of a former CIA director, the U.S. Justice Department confirmed in writing that Snowden never faced capital punishment. Lavrov falsely connects the Magnitsky Act to the Snowden affair. -
![Franz Klintsevich]()
Franz Klintsevich
Member of the Federation Council’s Committee on Defense and Security
“If you are trying to arrange a provocation, based on the idea that Crimea is not ours and without complying with international norms, you will be attempting to break through the border of the Russian Federation, all of which will be harshly suppressed, whether we are talking about Ukrainian, American or any other ships.”
Read more...Following a promise by the U.S. “to beef up” NATO’s presence in the Black Sea to ensure safe passage for Ukrainian ships traversing the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov, a Russian senator warned any such “provocation” would be harshly suppressed. But is the Azov Sea solely Moscow’s preserve? -
![Rick Sanchez, RT America host]()
Rick Sanchez, RT America host
RT America host
“The demonization of Russia is the engine that drives, if nothing else, our weapons industry. Using a complicit media, the arms industry makes billions and billions of dollars simply convincing us, and other countries all over the world, that they need protection from Russia… Whether Russia really poses a threat or not doesn’t really matter. That’s the real story here, that’s the real takeaway from the Mueller report.”
Read more...Independent analyses show that the global arms trade increased steadily over 2008-2018. During the period of the Mueller investigation, the U.S. share in the global weapons transfer increased by less than one percent.
Disinformation News and Analysis
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Disinfo Analysis
The Crimean Annexation Five Years On
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Disinfo Analysis
Disinfo Analysis: Moscow’s Balkan Defeat
