A photograph of an art installation in Milan, supposedly dedicated to the President of Ukraine, has gone viral on social networks. The monument represents a huge human nose with a path of white powder leading to it. We checked whether this art object is really dedicated to Vladimir Zelensky.
Many Telegram channels published a photograph of an art installation in Milan with the caption “A monument to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was opened in the center of Milan” (channel Saloboy — 26,500 views at the time of writing this analysis, “Compromising evidence of the CIS" - 16 900, "Gagauz Republic" - 11 800). The same posts appeared on the social network VKontakte (“People's volunteer militia "NADO"" - 44,000, "There is strength in truth" - 34,000). About the new monument to Zelensky wrote and several Russian speakers Media.
Rumors that the President of Ukraine allegedly uses drugs began to spread back in 2019 during the presidential elections in Ukraine. Then the accusations of his political opponents led to Zelensky passed drug test, the procedure was broadcast live on Facebook. This false narrative gained a new round of popularity after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine and the intensification of anti-Ukrainian propaganda. "Checked" and ours Colleagues more than once refuted similar fakes.
Nevertheless, the belief that the President of Ukraine uses drugs remains quite widespread. Perhaps that is why the news about the Milan art installation, supposedly dedicated to Zelensky and his addiction to cocaine, did not cause confusion among many social network users. Judging by the comments in Telegram channels and public pages on VKontakte, users decided that this was just another European art object ridiculing the Ukrainian president. Fakes on this topic (for example, graffiti with Zelensky in the image of a black hole sucking in money) “Checked” also more than once sorted it out. At the same time, proposals to erect lifetime monuments to the President of Ukraine have actually been received. For example, this idea recently was discussed in Lithuania. In the United States, Representative Joe Wilson suggested install a bust of Zelensky in the Capitol building, and in the Estonian city of Tõrva erected sand sculpture of Vladimir Zelensky, reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty.
However, the sculpture installed in Milan actually has nothing to do with the Ukrainian president. In one of the central squares of the city, indeed appeared an installation in the shape of a nose and a cocaine trail, but it was dedicated to the fight against drug trafficking and consumption. The author of the sculpture is an Italian activist and artist Christina Donati Meyer, which is already known for its street art objects (for example, graffiti with Putin's face in a cloud from a nuclear explosion). This time Meyer decided to draw the attention of Milanese to the problem of drug addiction in the city. The artist called her work Bianco Natale, Milano-Medellin (Italian: “White Christmas, Milan-Medellin”) and wrote on social networks: “This work condemns the large-scale drug trafficking in Milan and its central areas - the international center of mafia business. Cocaine trafficking has increased by 62% over the past year, and frequent seizures of large quantities in Milan have failed to stop or impact the black market. According to a chemical analysis of wastewater in Milan, cocaine use has increased by 30% over the past year.”
Some Russian speakers sources At the same time, they claim that the sculpture was not really conceived as a monument to Zelensky and that the residents of Milan only dubbed it that way. Evidence of this is difficult to find. Nevertheless, in the comments under the published photographs on Meyer’s social networks, not a single user at the time of writing this analysis drew an analogy with the Ukrainian president. We were unable to find such comparisons in the Italian media that wrote about the new installation. And in general, the theses that Zelensky allegedly uses drugs are not widespread in Italian sources. If you search for similar information in Italian, among the first 30 results in the Google search engine you will find only materials Italian fact-checking agencies, refuting false statements Russian propaganda about Zelensky’s drug addiction.
Another false claim by the Russians Media — that the installation was allegedly made based on Nikolai Gogol’s story “The Nose.” Where this information came from and what Gogol has to do with it, the media do not clarify. In the description of her sculpture, Christina Donati Meyer does not write about Gogol.
Thus, the nose sculpture installed in the center of Milan has nothing to do with Vladimir Zelensky. The sculptor conceived her installation only to attract public attention to the growth of drug trafficking in Milan.
Cover image: Instagram
Not true
Read on the topic:
- Is it true that graffiti with Zelensky appeared in Paris in the image of a black hole sucking in money?
- Is it true that 3D graffiti with Zelensky eating money appeared in Poland?
- Are the videos proving that Vladimir Zelensky uses drugs true?
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