Top Fact Checks
Latest Statements
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![Zakhar Prilepin]()
Zakhar Prilepin
Russian novelist, TV presenter
"By the results rarely anybody could compete with my battalion. All we had been doing was simply a pure mayhem. And this especially makes me laugh because of the attacks on me, especially the ones about how I'm a 'fake field commander.' No one, not one field commander, has got such results as I have. I can’t even talk about it, but one day the documents will surface and everybody will learn at which locations there were most human losses and that my battalion was there."
Read more...Zakhar Prilepin was deputy commander of a "battalion" formed in 2016, well after the last major combat operations in Donbas. He spent much of his time in Donetsk hosting a TV show. A former battalion leader claimed it was not a combat unit. -
![Sergey Lavrov]()
Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
“In the field of sports, there are power battles which are mainly aimed at ensuring that an Anglo-Saxon group of states determines the rules, including with regards to the use of doping.”
Read more...Russia’s foreign minister has claimed an “Anglo-Saxon” group of states is dictating anti-doping policies to the world. Current anti-doping rules follow the World Anti-Doping Code first introduced in 1999 in Switzerland, to which 660 sports organizations, including Russia’s, are signatories. -
![Xie Feng]()
Xie Feng
Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
“They have told blatant lies, applauded violence as 'a beautiful sight to behold…'
Read more...A Chinese official in Hong Kong directed his ire at Western politicians he claimed had “applauded violence as 'a beautiful sight to behold'.” He was citing Nancy Pelosi’s words, which did not applaud violence, but praised a peaceful candlelight vigil for the Tiananmen Square massacre. -
![Times of India]()
Times of India
Indian news outlet
“Russia has endorsed India's move of abrogating Article 370 and bifurcating the state of Jammu & Kashmir, saying the exercise was ‘carried out within the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of India.’”
Read more...No reference to this subject is found in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s briefing of August 9, the date cited in the article. No such quote can be found on the foreign ministry’s website, and ministry has not responded to a question on the quote. -
![RIA Novosti]()
RIA Novosti
Russian state news agency
"On August 15, Norway offered help in the rescue operation. The offer was accepted by the Ministry of Defense."
Read more...Nineteen years after the Kursk submarine disaster, Russian state media present a misleading chronicle of the events -- omitting key facts deemed damaging to Vladimir Putin’s reputation. -
![Rossiya-24]()
Rossiya-24
Russian State TV broadcaster
“It was a concert: An ugly action in the center of Moscow.”
Read more...Russian state TV ran a hit piece on a recent opposition rally, claiming it was cooked up abroad by Russia’s enemies while the attendees were primarily interested in music. That report fits into a Kremlin narrative, seeking to neuter protests which have brought thousands to the streets of Moscow. -
![Russian Defense Ministry]()
Russian Defense Ministry
"There were no emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere, background radiation is normal."
"There were no emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere, background radiation is normal."
Read more...The Russian Defense Ministry statement was contradicted by the local mayor’s office, which reported a “brief” rise in radiation levels, and some victims of the accident are apparently being treated for radiation exposure. Rosatom later said they were working with nuclear material. -
![Nikolai Patrushev]()
Nikolai Patrushev
Russian Security Council Secretary
"I am unable to mention a single instance [of a violation] or piece of evidence they [the US] presented to us. There has been nothing of the sort."
Read more...The U.S. has raised Russia’s INF violations in more than 30 bilateral meetings over the past six years. Russian military commanders have inadvertently disclosed that the Novator 9M729 is capable of exceeding the 500 km threshold of the INF Treaty. -
![Embassy of the Russian Federation in London]()
Embassy of the Russian Federation in London
Official Twitter feed
“Sanctions and accusations are poor substitute for evidence. And the latter lacks utterly.”
Read more...Following additional U.S. sanctions on Russia over the March 2018 Novichok poisoning, Russia's U.K. embassy claimed there is no proof linking Moscow to the attack. However, the presence of Russian GRU officers near the Skripals’ Salisbury home and other evidence points to the Kremlin's culpability. -
![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman
“A division of the State Department of the United States -- and, directly, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow -- published the itinerary of the so-called walk that lay ahead on Saturday.”
Read more...The U.S. State Department routinely publishes warnings to U.S. citizens about demonstrations in foreign cities, especially if there is a danger of clashes with law enforcement. -
![Russian Embassy in South Africa Twitter Account]()
Russian Embassy in South Africa Twitter Account
Official Russian Foreign Ministry social media account
“Thought police is already here - @twitter suspends account of the Russian Embassy in #Syria (!) after it posted factual criticism of the #WhiteHelmets, quoted @mod_russia data. Wasn't verified account yet - only proves "ordinary" accounts not allowed to have differing opinions”
Read more...Twitter did not say why it banned the account in question. However, the Twitter accounts of a number of Russian embassies have repeatedly disseminated false information about the White Helmets. -
![Alexey Martynov]()
Alexey Martynov
Director of the International Institute of Newly-Established States
“And so, the attempt to organize mass unrest in Moscow through provocations to elicit a extremely harsh police reaction have failed.”
Read more...After protests against a ban on opposition candidates in Moscow’s upcoming municipal elections turned violent, a pro-Kremlin pundit claimed that the protesters had tried to provoke a harsh police response. But journalists and rights organizations say the police crackdown was swift and unprovoked. -
![Sputnik Serbia]()
Sputnik Serbia
Russian government-sponsored web portal
“The persecution of the SPC [Serbian Orthodox Church] in North Macedonia, as well as the latest heightened tensions and pressure on the SPC diocese in Montenegro can be interpreted as part of the wider strategy of the West to counter Orthodoxy.”
Read more...NATO is no enemy of Orthodoxy as several NATO member states are predominantly Christian Orthodox. The Orthodox churches of Montenegro and North Macedonia have been seeking independence even before the break up of Yugoslavia. -
![Igor Konashenkov]()
Igor Konashenkov
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson
"Concerning speculation about cluster bombs – the Russian air force does not use (them).”
Read more...Besides state media footage, that showed cluster munitions on Russian-used bases in Syria, a recent Russian Defense Ministry exhibit of weapons used in that country displayed cluster bombs.
Disinformation News and Analysis
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Disinfo Analysis
Russia: Non-Information as Disinformation
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Disinfo Analysis
‘The Balkan Line’ – Russian Disinformation on the Big Screen
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World Press Freedom Day
Russia’s International Broadcasters: Turning the Serbian Media into a Disinformation Hub
