In 2022, before Easter, the media and social network users shared a photo of “nationalist” baked goods, allegedly made in one of the Ukrainian supermarkets. We have verified the authenticity of this image.
April 23, 2022 Readovka edition published a photograph of Easter cakes, which were allegedly decorated with the word “Azov”, the emblem of the regiment of the same name and the flag of Ukraine. According to the author of the note, Sergei Nichaev, the photo was taken in a certain Ukrainian supermarket. Same day unusual culinary products (without using a picture) mentioned RBC. Photograph posted in his Telegram channel, TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov, later her commented Deputy head of Rossotrudnichestvo, ex-State Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya. The image was actively published by publics on VKontakte, for example "World War III" (195,000 subscribers at the time of writing the analysis) and "The Art of War" (160,000 subscribers). The picture can also be found on other social networks, including Facebook*, Twitter, Telegram And Pikabu.
Let's start with the fact that the symbol presented in the picture is really used on the emblem of the Azov regiment. It looks very similar to the modified Wolfsangel (“wolf hook”) is an ancient runic sign, which at one time began to be used by some armed units of Nazi Germany. Later it became popular among neo-Nazis from different countries. However, representatives of Azov claimedthat these are actually stylized letters N ("nation") and I ("idea").
An image of Easter cakes with Azov symbols, allegedly sold in Ukrainian stores, has gone viral not only in Russia, but also abroad. The picture attracted the attention of fact checkers from the German project Correctiv. According to our colleagues, social network users are distributing the edited photo.
The original photo of Easter cakes, which later became “Easter cakes with Azov symbols,” was published back in April 2019. It taken from the website of the Ukrainian publication “Facts”, in the material of which journalist Karina Zueva, together with pastry chef Tamara Baleva, compared Easter cakes from different chain Ukrainian supermarkets. In particular, the girls visited the Billa store, where they took this photo:
Two photographs: the real one from 2019 and the edited one from 2022 - are almost identical. The different types of Easter pastries lying on both sides of the Easter cake, the baskets for the products, and the white price tag on the metal holder in the center of the photo are the same. The only differences are the glaze and Easter decorations and the color of the picture itself—during editing, apparently, it was made a little brighter. Moreover, in the same Fakty report there is photo from another angle - the Easter image is also decorated with ordinary sprinkles, and not the Azov logo, the name of the regiment and Ukrainian flags.
Unfortunately, we were unable to reliably establish the original source of the mounted photograph. The earliest publications using it that we could find appeared on Telegram around 17:30 Moscow time on April 23. At 17:26 the image was posted by the channel "Muesli Lavrova", at 17:29 - channel "South Live?", a minute later a repost from it appeared on channel Vladimir Solovyov. On other social networks, for example Facebook and in "VKontakte", similar publications began to appear a few tens of minutes later.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
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