Putin

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 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's wife, Olena Zelenska, buy a Bugatti sports car for almost 4.5 million euros in June 2024? No, that's not true: The invoice supposedly proving the claim contained multiple errors. Both Bugatti and Bugatti's Paris-based dealership denied the authenticity of the document shared online and a video supposedly showing a Bugatti employee confirming the claim appears…

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…

Is the wife of the suspect in the attempted assassination of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico a Ukrainian refugee? No, that's not true: The head of the country's national police said that such speculations on social media are "definitely a hoax." Lead Stories found no credible news reporting corroborating the claim. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on…

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 Australian law enforcement identify a Sydney mall attacker as "Benjamin Cohen"? No, that's not true: The police said that the man's name was Joel Cauchi. The claim originated from an account on X that self-identifies as aligned with a Russian state information outlet. The story reappeared in a post (saved here) on Facebook where it was published on April…

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 Donald Trump say "144,000 Black people with superpower godlike abilities" are the "chosen ones", as a TikTok video claims? No, that's not true: In a viral clip on social media, the original sound from an NBC interview was replaced by AI-generated audio. The counterfeit video uses footage from a 2017 interview in which Trump talked about firing FBI Director…