Likely false
Thursday 20 July 2017
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Vladimir Putin
President, Russia
“Moscow is among the world leaders in the use of digital technologies in modern urban infrastructure, ahead of such mega-cities like Toronto, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Barcelona and Sydney. By the way, in certain aspects of the index, Moscow is among the top three: digital services in the interactions between the state and the citizens – actually first place, simply first place in the world. The creation of infrastructure for the implementation of innovative solutions: according this criterion, Moscow takes second place in the world. The development of new business models based on the mass adoption of advanced technologies – third place; and an education system that meets the needs of the labor market of the future – also third place.”
Read more...Russia’s president praised Moscow for earning the top three positions among the world’s “data driven” mega-cities in an assessment made by the Moscow branch of the PricewaterhouseCoopers consulting company. The fact that PwC-Russia has an ongoing long-term contract with the Russian government raises questions about the independence and objectivity of this assessment. -
Vladimir Putin
Russian President
“Those are [IS] militants” [Vladimir Putin] “You wouldn’t want to join [IS] if you saw that” [Oliver Stone].
Read more...While Putin evidently believed the video was taken from recent Russian air strikes in Syria, in fact, it is a clip evidently of U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan released in 2009. -
Nikolai Patrushev
chairman of Russian Security Council
“Neo-Nazi ideas are reviving in Europe. According to available data, there are more than 500 neo-Nazi and national-radical groups (often youth groups) in the European Union. More than 7 million people are members.”
Read more...Experts are puzzled where Patrushev got such high numbers as only a tenth as many such groups are documented. There’s also a debate on how to define and count such groups. -
Veronika Skvortsova
Russian Health Minister
“2016 was a landmark for us in terms of HIV. Firstly, because in 2016 the growth rate of new cases decreased by half and mortality was, accordingly, reduced. Overall, we had 86.8 thousand new HIV infections, while a year ago, in 2015, there more than 100 thousand. That is a decrease of 15%."
Read more...The Russian Health Ministry claims that the number of new HIV infections in the country fell significantly in 2016, but this claim runs contrary to statistics and wider trends. -
Russian Defense Ministry
Ministry's Center for the Reconciliation of the Warring Sides in Syria
“According to information from a number of sources among local residents and opposition formations … special ‘video brigades’ carried out staged filming in the past week of the alleged consequences of shelling and airstrikes, including the use of ‘poisonous substances.”
Read more...Russia has accused Al Jazeera of faking videos of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. But no matter how many times they rewrite the story, it looks extremely flimsy. -
Russian Foreign Ministry
“The circumstances of the incident indicate a high probability of a provocation geared at breaking down the settlement process in Donbas."
Read more...The OSCE monitors were traveling in Russia-backed separatist-held territory near the front line, where large amounts of land have been mined. Ukrainian forces were not likely to have accessed this area. Past attacks on the OSCE mission were mainly by separatists, and they bear responsibility for this area they control. -
Aleksandr Bastrykin
head of the Russian Investigative Committee
“We have already questioned more than 113 thousand people as witnesses. More than 21 thousand people have been recognized as victims [of war crimes in Ukraine]”
Read more...The claim of more than 21,000 victims of alleged war crimes is more than double the total number of civilian casualties estimated by the United Nations to have taken place on either side of the front line. Also fails to note many casualties of the conflict are due to the direct role of Russian soldiers or weapons. -
Sergey Lavrov
Foreign Minister, Russia
“It stands in the same row with other unfounded allegations against us and our country…On none of these unfounded allegations had we been presented with a single fact.”
Read more...While Russia dismisses its alleged involvement in last year’s attempted coup in Montenegro as “unfounded allegations,” Montenegrin officials say they have proof that the Kremlin orchestrated the plot and named Russian operatives as suspects. -
Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
“[S]ome [Ukrainian] oligarchs -- surely with approval from the political leadership -- financed a woman candidate. Now [the Ukrainian authorities] need to mend ties with the current U.S. administration amid a conflict… It's always easier to drag the current [U.S.] administration in solving Ukrainian problems and establish a dialogue this way.”
Read more...During a press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on February 2, President Vladimir Putin implied that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was supported by Ukrainian oligarchs' donation. But there is no evidence of such direct support, although Viktor Pinchuk made a contribution to the Clinton Foundation. -
Sergei Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
“In addition to spying, U.S. embassy diplomats have repeatedly been seen taking part in the rallies of opposition, anti-government forces, unauthorized rallies, including times when they wore disguise. Do the math yourselves.”
Read more...The Russian government did not release evidence to support their claim; there is no confirmed open-source evidence to suggest U.S. diplomats attended protests in disguise, and at least one U.S. ambassador denies it. In 2013, a U.S. embassy worker was arrested by the FSB for alleged spying, but he was not accused of attending protests. -
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov
Head of Republic of Ingushetia
“…the program was approved and we completed its implementation with good results in 2016.”
Read more...The leader of one of Russia’s poorest and restive regions says that his republic completed an economic improvement program with “good results.” But the claims he makes rely upon economic statistics that either are not in state records or fall short of the program’s goals. -
Maria Zakharova
spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry
"Large-scale deployments of U.S. troops in Europe have a powerful potential for destroying the entire architecture of European security. They are creating a new military-political reality, substantially upsetting the alignment of forces in Europe."
Read more...Russia’s Foreign Ministry has implied that the deployment of 4,000 U.S. troops to bolster Baltic security in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine will “destroy” the post-war security balance on the European continent. Yet Russia’s superiority in tanks and troops at the border and its ability to martial many more is the reason for deterrence.