Is it true that the UK Health Minister explained the “pathological aggressiveness of Russians” by their poor genetics?

For several years now, a statement by the British Minister of Health has been circulating on social networks about the connection between the poor genetics of Russians and their aggressiveness. Recently, a State Duma deputy spoke about this on a federal channel. We checked whether the head of the ministry really said this.

In April 2022, on the air of the Russia 1 TV channel came out the “60 Minutes” program, where Alexey Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, spoke as one of the experts. During his speech, he stated the following: “You see, they all treat us like that! For example, the British Minister of Health, there is Elizabeth Kelly - such a girl, she looks, of course, not like a girl, but, most likely, [like] some kind of transgender. But she states very simple things that Russians are aggressive because we have the wrong genetics. Do you understand? That's what we're talking about! Because they really mean it." Presenter Evgeny Popov commented on Zhuravlev’s words: “Well, what do you want from us then? We have such genetics." Then Zhuravlev mentioned fake quote George Soros, but Popov interrupted him and said that “it seems like” Kelly didn’t say that. To this Zhuravlev confidently and laughingly replied: “Why? She declared! That's right. Well, why didn’t you declare it? She didn't report? Yes, sure!"

Around the same quote from Kelly that Zhuravlev gave is circulating on social networks, often with reference to The Telegraph (examples on VKontakte - here, here And here, on Twitter - here And here, and in Odnoklassniki - here). The minister’s quote can also be found outside of social networks, for example on blog platforms "Zen" And "I cried".

Fragment of the program “60 minutes”, channel “Russia 1”. Source

In fact, a woman named Elizabeth Kelly never served as UK Health Secretary. We checked the list of people who held this position and found only three women: Barbara Castle (was Minister of Health from 1974 to 1976), Virginia Bottomley (from 1992 to 1995) and Patricia Hewitt (from 2005 to 2007). And currently the specified post takes Sajid Javid, his predecessors were Matthew Hancock (2018 to 2021) and Jeremy Hunt (2012 to 2018).

The primary source of news about Elizabeth Kelly’s statement was the website of the news agency Panorama, where a note with the words of the minister published March 17, 2018. There, with reference to The Telegraph, it was reported that she spoke in the British Parliament with a report on the state of victims in the chemical attack in Salisbury and answered questions from deputies. The publication quoted Kelly as follows: “Russians are a pathologically aggressive nation, and this is not a political statement, this is genetics.” And later she added that “Russian aggression should be seen as part of their DNA code.”

Let us remind you that “Panorama” is a satirical publication with comic stories, which is also stated on logo, and in the disclaimer: “All texts on this site are grotesque parodies of reality and are not real news.” By the way, this is not the first time that deputy Zhuravlev has been caught spreading news invented by satirical portals. For example, a couple of years ago, also on the “60 Minutes” program, he told that brothels for zoophiles operate legally in Denmark.

And the photograph used in the Panorama material shows Anthony Monaghan, an Irish filmmaker, filmed documentaries such as Rednecks and Culches (2016) and My Ireland (2019). Or rather, this is not even a photo, but a screenshot from a video of Monahan’s interview on the Rednecks and Culchies YouTube channel, where he posted in 2017.

Cover photo: screenshot of the Rednecks and Culchies video

Satirical news

What do our verdicts mean?

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