Vladimir Putin

Did Vladimir Putin say in a televised address on November 17, 2024, that Russia could use nuclear weapons if Ukraine launches "a mass missile" to strike targets inside Russia? No, that's not true: A viral post on X reused footage from almost two months before November 2024, when reports said the Biden administration was removing a long-standing ban on the…

Did an authentic video on Facebook show F-16 fighter jets striking Russian President Vladimir Putin's cruise ship while it was carrying Korean shells? No, that's not true: The clip was published by an account self-described as that of a gaming video creator. The account has posted hundreds of similar videos on Facebook that also include signs of having been created…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly say, "It's God's job to forgive terrorists, my job is to send them to him"? No, that's not true: The attribution, which dates to 2015, was refuted shortly after it was made. Lead Stories could not find any other public figure who said that exact quote. The claim appeared in a post on Instagram…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin say at a "military press conference in Russia" that the U.S. was planning to launch a second pandemic "aimed at disrupting the 2024 election" domestically? No, that's not true: Neither a viral AI-generated article making the claim nor earlier pieces speculating about it offered any proof that Putin actually said that. Lead Stories searched both…

Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say, "If Russia does not agree to the terms of the peace summit, we will force it to surrender"? No, that's not true: The comments attributed to her come from a falsified Russian translation of what she said in English at the Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland in June 2024. While Meloni has…

Did former Fox News host Tucker Carlson launch a new show on Russian TV? No, that's not true: Tucker and his representatives have been denying that since 2023. Though multiple episodes of his shows, dubbed into Russian, continue to appear on a Russian state-owned streaming platform, they are not a brand-new product for Russia -- those episodes were previously broadcast…

Did Russia's President Vladimir Putin publicly announce after Iran's aerial strike on Israel that Moscow will back Iran if the U.S. attacks "Iran's soil" in U.S. support of Israel? No, that's not true: As of this writing, Putin has not made this public statement or any others directly referring to the Iranian attack or potential further developments in the region.…

Did online talk show host Tucker Carlson release a photo of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "captured" and being sent to a high-security prison in Russia? No, that's not true: The image posted on social media is a screenshot from the Ukrainian sitcom series "Servant of the People" that Zelenskyy starred in before becoming president of Ukraine. The show's production company…

Did Vladimir Putin proclaim that Russia will embrace "the guidance of Black Jesus"? No, that's not true: A video claiming to be an authentic fragment of a Sky News live broadcast of an address by Putin was digitally doctored. The original sound was replaced by an AI-generated voice reading an AI-generated text. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Is this an authentic March, 2024 photo, showing flames billowing behind a President Vladimir Putin re-election billboard that reads "stability" in Russian? No, that's not true: The image was computer-generated, according to tools created to detect AI art. Earlier versions of posts with the picture contained the kinds of anomalies that are common to AI-generated images. The claim appeared in…