Iran Press/ Europe: Some Western newspapers, TV channels and online news outlets entered into a competition to create the most outlandish fake news stories.
British, Polish, and Ukrainian media have jumped on rumors that Russia’s president hopped on a jet and flew out of the Russian capital. A Telegram channel run by members of Belarus’s EU and US-backed opposition was the source of the report.
According to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin hasn’t gone anywhere and was working in the Moscow Kremlin on Saturday. Not only is the rumor false, but it doesn’t make logical sense, since Prigozhin made clear repeatedly over the past 24 hours that his beef is with the Defense Ministry, not Putin, and that he’s not trying to stage a "coup."
Another fake, this one spread by some major Telegram news channels, cites a seemingly harmless tweet by an Iranian freelance journalist who expressed solidarity with Russia, and said that Iran “stopped the fall of the Syrian government in the interests of our country and people,” and if necessary, will be ready to do the same to help Russia.
‘Creatively interpreting’ his words, Telegram channels somehow concluded that Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is "ready to send its detachments to Moscow to assist the Russian government."
Tehran has indeed expressed support for Russia – diplomatic support. In a statement attributed to Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Saturday, the Islamic Republic said that it considers events in Russia as the country's "internal affair," and stressed that Tehran supports "the rule of law in the Russian Federation."
Read more:
FM Spox: Iran supports rule of law in Russia
The Iranian foreign minister criticized any foreign interference in the internal affairs of different countries.
Another popular piece of fake news, this one spread mostly by UK tabloids and Ukrainian resources, claims that Moscow and its environs have been placed under strict lockdown, or that riots have broken out in the city’s pre-trial detention centers.
But there have been no independent reports of any unrest around the capital’s big two pre-trial facilities, Butyrka and Matrosskaya Tishina from Moscow’s smartphone camera-wielding residents.
As for lockdowns, the police presence in the city has indeed noticeably increased, but not to the point of blocking off traffic or interfering with people going on with their business in any real way. On Saturday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that there were no restrictions for entry or exit from the city. He did add, however, that Monday would be a non-working day.
Finally, another piece of fake news, again spread by Ukrainian sites, claims that Wagner units in Rostov-on-Don have disarmed the guards of correctional colonies in the southern Russian city and let its prisoners go. The source was “Russian media” including 161.ru, which is a local news portal.
The situation surrounding Wagner's mutiny appears to be calming down, with Wagner boss Evgeny Prigozhin announcing Saturday evening that his forces had halted their march on Moscow and would be returning to their home bases after talks reportedly mediated by Minsk.
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