Did the Russian cities of Vyborg, Petrozavodsk, and Murmansk decide with an overwhelming majority vote to leave Russia and join Finland? No, that's not true: This fictional multipart story is illustrated with an AI-generated image of "unidentified militants" and a fictional map of "Greater Finland". The fake news narrative is a twist on an idea from the early 1900s regarding the expansion of Finland's borders. At the end of the thread the author admitted that it was not true, saying that it was alarming people fell for it.
The made-up story appeared in a thread (archived here) published on X on Oct. 7, 2025 by @TallbarFIN. The post was captioned:
BREAKING!
Unidentified militants took over administrative buildings in russian Karelia and Kola peninsula this morning and organized quick regional elections.
Votes were cast in Karelia's Vyborg & Petrozavodsk, and in Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula which chose to join Finland.
The image included with the post (pictured below) has in the lower right corner, a watermark from Grok, the xAI assistant which can produce images from prompts:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/TallbarFIN/status/1975456018357457115.)
The thread continues with detailed supporting posts including voting results from three Russian cities, the map of the new borders of Finland after the annexation, and the statement that the Russian military was not expected to resist because all the troops are in Ukraine. In the final post (archived here) the author says:
Amount of people who actually thought this is true is highly alarming.
No wonder russian disinformation works so well😬
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/TallbarFIN/status/1975544252693414106.)
A Google reverse image search for the map included in the thread (archived here) returns results posted on 4Chan and Reddit . The Google AI overview identifies the map and explains the concept of "Greater Finland":
This is a map depicting the concept of "Greater Finland" (Suur-Suomi), a nationalist and irredentist idea that advocates for the expansion of Finland's borders. The map shows a larger Finland that includes territories beyond its current borders. The most common concept of Greater Finland includes territories inhabited by Finns and Karelians, extending from the White Sea to Lake Onega and the Gulf of Finland.
The AI summary appears to have been drawn from the Greater Finland Wikipedia entry.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/TallbarFIN/status/1975456028419629277.)
