Is it true that a map of the future division of Russia was shown on Chinese state television?

In the media and social networks for a long time you can see a frame supposedly from a broadcast of a Chinese TV channel, which depicts a map of Russia divided between neighboring countries. We decided to check if these reports are true.

On March 14, 2023, the map was published in Twitter Russian opposition politician, former State Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov. As of this writing, his tweet has received over 270,000 views. The map and a frame from a broadcast of a Chinese TV channel have appeared on the Internet before: back in July 2020, the map was published in my twitter Member of the Latvian Seimas Alexander Kirshteins, and in April 2022 posted it in his Telegram channel Advisor to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko. The Latvian politician’s tweet caused the greatest resonance: Russian state media then wrotethat “in Latvia they decided to divide Russia.” The map also appeared on the Belarusian opposition website “Charter’97» and in the Telegram channel of the Ukrainian agency UNIAN.

Most often, two photographs are published on social networks: the card itself and a frame from a Chinese television broadcast in which this card was allegedly used. These images are worth examining separately. The map was first published on the Reddit forum on July 2, 2020, the project found out Factcheck.kz, and it has nothing to do with the division of Russia, which politicians and bloggers from different countries write about. Initially the picture posted in the MapPorn community under the title "Nearest Country to You When You're in Russia."

A few days later, the map (with an almost identical title to the original) was posted on Twitter Melbourne-based German demographer Simon Kustenmacher. And his tweet was already quoted by the Latvian MP Kiršteins, but with his own comment in Latvian: “How soon do you think Russia will be divided like this”?

That is, in this case, the map is real, but the image was taken out of context and presented as a map of the division of Russia.

It’s a completely different story with the second image, in which the card is allegedly behind the back of the presenter of one of the Chinese TV channels.

All blog entries use the same screenshot; neither the entire broadcast nor even an excerpt from it is found anywhere. Fact checkers from Factcheck.kz The caption at the bottom of the photo helped. Using Google Translate, they realized that the text was about financial markets, and the numbers used turned out to be the license number of an investment analyst Tao Ye from Beijing Zhongfang Xinfu Investment Management Consulting Co., Ltd.

Tao Ye's video on financial markets was published on YouTube June 30, 2021. Behind him are stock quotes and charts, not a map, although the image of the presenter himself is the same. However, the author of the fake (unfortunately, we were unable to establish it) edited the desired frame, adding to it a map with the names of countries in Chinese and a logo in the upper right corner, which does not even remotely resemble the emblem of a Chinese TV channel CCTV, which is often mentioned in viral publications.

Thus, two conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the map does not show the possible division of Russia between neighbors, but the nearest foreign state depending on the location within Russia itself. Secondly, the map was not shown on Chinese television: the screenshot of the broadcast is an image of a presenter superimposed on the map from a YouTube video dedicated not to politics, but to financial markets.

Cover photo: social networks

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Factcheck.kz. Is it true that a map of the division of Russia was shown on Chinese television?
2. Is it true that a German TV channel showed on air a map of Ukraine changed as a result of the referendums?
3. Is it true that a Polish TV channel during a weather forecast showed a map of Poland, which includes the territories of Western Ukraine?