In March 2023, a drawing allegedly published in an American magazine began to circulate on social networks, in which the dog from a popular meme was replaced with the President of Ukraine watching negotiations between Russia and China on TV. We have verified the authenticity of this image.
IN original The meme depicts an anthropomorphic dog sitting in a burning room and trying to reassure itself that “everything is fine” (This is fine). If you believe posts on social networks, the artist of the American magazine Newsweek redrew the meme, replacing the animal with Vladimir Zelensky, who says: “This is not fine.” At the same time, on the TV in front of the Ukrainian leader a handshake is shown against the backdrop of the flags of Russia and China - this is reference for the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrived to Moscow on March 20, 2023. The cover also reads, “Putin's arrest warrant didn't stop Chairman Xi.” This is an order that issued International Criminal Court three days before the start of the official visit of the Chinese leader to Russia.
The alleged Newsweek cover began circulating online on March 21st. For example, Russian pro-government media posted it on their social networks “Ukraine.ru" And "Tsargrad TV" The image also appeared in many public pages on VKontakte dedicated to the so-called special operation (examples here, here, here And here). The picture was posted on Telegram by the channels “DPR 🅉 info 🇷🇺"(49,000 views), Swiss Vatnik (13,000), "Before everyone else. Well almost. Special operation" (11,000), "Non-West"(10,000), MilitaryMaps | Z 🇷🇺 (9000), "Club "Lev Sharansky""(9000) and etc.. At the same time, some posts contain the same phrase: “We couldn’t check whether it’s fake or not, but the picture turned out to be iconic. Test."
Newsweek is a weekly publication with new issues published on Wednesdays, and the cover usually shows the date corresponding to the following Friday. However, the viral picture says that this is a special issue for March 21, 2023 (Tuesday). "Verified" studied the official website publications, as well as his accounts on social networks (Facebook*, Instagram* And Twitter) and found neither a cartoon parodying the meme nor a cover with it. Moreover, the Newsweek website has archive with all covers up to 2013 - we checked them and did not find a single special issue designed as shown in the viral image. The phrase special issue was never placed under the title of the magazine - this note was printed at the top border of the cover. The covers were designed in the same way. special issue on elections special election issue climate change issue (climate change issue), special Oscar edition (Oscars special) and special issue on health (special health issue) for 2017. We found a few exceptions - special issues on health for 2016 And 2015 years and also special issue on cancer (special cancer issue), but even there the corresponding note was not placed directly under the name of the journal. The only special cover with a design similar to the viral cover was in 2022, but with a different note - then Newsweek published special report (special report) on the topic of surveillance of Chinese citizens living abroad (in 2021, another numbers the same mark was on top). Moreover, the indicated dates on the covers in all cases corresponded to Fridays.
Adding a special issue caption - beloved strategy authors fake covers that have been “Verified” in recent months repeatedly wrote. In addition, the Newsweek cover is not the first time Zelensky has been portrayed as a dog in fake materials. Thus, in the fall of 2022, three fake covers of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, on which the President of Ukraine was depicted as a dog, were distributed on the Internet, and in February 2023 appeared a fake recording of an American TV channel, where they allegedly accidentally showed Zelensky’s speech instead of a funny video with a barking puppy.
Two more factors indicate the falsity of the meme cover. Firstly, the phrase “The Iraq War's "Lessons" 20 Years Later", located at the top of the image, is not written in the same font that has been used in recent years on the actual covers published on the publication's website. This is especially noticeable with the apostrophe, as well as the letters “e” and “a”.
Secondly, on the viral cover the date is written in European format (03/21/2023), while in the American format, which is used on Newsweek covers, the month is indicated first, and then the day (21/03/2023). Moreover, the font again differs from the official one, which is especially noticeable in the numbers 1, 2 and 3.
“Verified” was unable to unambiguously establish the original source of the fake, but the earliest publication we discovered appeared on March 21 at 12:08 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Guard"(8000 views). This channel has already appeared twice in “Verified” reviews: they distributed fake photo ticket in the Kiev metro with a mention of nuclear war and fake screenshot Polish site for booking hotels and accommodation with the option “without Ukrainians”.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: social networks
Fake
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