At the end of January 2023, Internet users wrote that a magazine was published in Poland, on the cover of which Ukraine was compared to a sunken submarine, and Ukrainians to rats running from it. We checked whether such an issue was actually published.
From January 27 via Telegram channels and social networks separated posts with the following content: ““Not all ships can have rats escape alive” - this was the headline of the Polish magazine Polityka. Apparently, the Poles also appreciated the latest rat race in the Ukrainian elite.” Also exists the second popular version of the caption for the viral cover with a less accurate translation of the phrase in Polish: ““Not all rats will manage to escape alive” - this was the headline of the Polish magazine Polityka. The cover depicts a sunken submarine, it is painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The article itself talks about disagreements in the Ukrainian government.” At the same time, many drowned rodents are drawn near the submarine. Probably, the posts refer to a series of resignations in Ukrainian structures, including the Office of the President, the Ministry of Defense and the Prosecutor General's Office, as well as among the heads of Ukrainian regions. About personnel changes it became known shortly before the viral cover appeared.
For example, this comment about the cover appeared in the Telegram channel “Zl⭕️th proof️"(123,000 views at the time of writing this analysis): "The Poles, with some delay, repeated the popular memes in our channels about rats fleeing from the ship. But since they mostly run towards them, their wishes are completely different!” Channels also wrote about the cover:Scott Ritter on Telegram"(188,000), "Bullet"(182,000), "Sheikh Tamir" (163,000), "Peacemaker"(147,000), "Ostashko! Important"(112,000), "Uncle Slava"(111,000), "What happened?"(100,000), "Ukraine.ru"(87,000), "Gasparyan"(84,000), "Russia 2.0"(62,000), Rogandar News (53,000), "Staff Correspondent" (47,000) and "Kristina Potupchik"(33,000). A viral image can be found on VKontakte (examples here, here, here And here), Twitter (here, here And here), to "I cried" And others Russian-speaking websites.
Polityka is weekly, that is, all issues are published once a week. On the right side of the viral cover, right under the title of the magazine, it is written that this is issue number 6 (3400), that is, the sixth for 2023 and the 3400th in the total numbering. Issue No. 5 (3399) came out January 24, 2023, respectively, No. 6 (3400) was supposed to be released on January 31. However, instead of a date, next to the number of the virus magazine it is indicated that it is a “special issue” (specjalna sprawa).
On the official website of the publication available section with an archive of all covers starting from 1998. At the time of writing, the 2023 gallery features four issues (sixth, fifth, fourth And third), since the first and second were combined and came out at the end of 2022. “Verified” could not find the viral cover either on the website or on the official social networks of Polityka in Instagram*, Facebook* And Twitter. Moreover, we did not find a single cover in the publication’s archive marked “special issue.”
On the officially published cover of the issue 6 (3400) depicts a young couple looking at residential buildings through a high wall. The headline on the cover reads: “Neither buy nor rent. Housing: real drama, fake prescriptions from the authorities.” Accordingly, the title article dedicated crisis in the real estate market in Poland.
On the cover with the submarine, to the left of the logo is the name of the supposed author of the title cartoon - Martha Frey. "Verified" sent to studio email Frey and her facebook questions about whether the artist is connected to the creation of the viral cover. The artist and partner Frey responded to us first Tomasz Koszczynski, according to which she did not draw a cartoon with rats and a submarine. Then Frey herself told us that this was a fake cover, in the creation of which she was not involved. Polish fact-checking project Demagog received comment not only from Frey, but also from the head of the science department of the Polityka editorial office Marcin Rotkiewicz, who called the picture “a complete fake.” According to him, the magazine never uses the postscript “special issue”.
The authors of fakes often get confused in the details. For example, like more than once before that, on the fake cover in question you can see a font that differs from that used on the genuine Polityka covers, which is especially evident from the numbers on the barcodes. Next to the phrase “illustration by Martha Frey” there is a copyright symbol (©), although previously in such cases it was absent - “Verified” has studied everything covers for 2022–2023 and noticed that the copyright mark was placed only in the absence of the word “illustration”. In addition, on the left side of the fake it is indicated that in the Eurozone countries the magazine costs €3.70, although from the end of 2022 the cost increased up to €4.95. But the most significant mistake lies in the barcode of the fake cover. We noticed that on the real covers for 2023 the number on the barcode ends like this: 350305, and on the fake one - 350909. At the same time, the barcode also indicates the serial number for the year, but the fake, which is supposedly number 6, has the number 29 corresponding to number 29. We found the barcode exactly like the fake one on the issue numbered 29 (3219), which was released in 2019. Moreover, its cover, drawn by Martha Frey, is really dedicated Ukraine, or more precisely, the plight of Ukrainians working as service personnel in Polish hotels.
We found the earliest publication with a fake cover in the Telegram channel “Before everyone else. Well almost. Special Operation" (13,000 views), which previously more than once turned out to be primary source such fakes. There is a post with a viral image and the first translation of the title of the title article appeared January 27 at 12:29 Moscow time. After 24 minutes in the “Putin on Telegram” channel (255,000 views) came out a post with a second version of the translation, where for the first time it was indicated that the title story of the issue talks about disagreements in the Ukrainian government. This channel is also repeatedly was becoming distributor fake covers of foreign magazines.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Instagram and Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: social networks
Fake
- Is it true that rats were the main carriers of the plague?
- Is it true that the diet of Russian submariners includes wine?
- Is it true that foreign magazines published these covers dedicated to Zelensky and Ukraine?
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