In early July 2023, the covers of the Handelsblatt newspaper and the satirical magazine Leman, which make fun of the prospects for Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance, dispersed over the network. We decided to check if it is real caricatures.
German newspaper Handelsblatt
On July 12, the cover of allegedly the Handelsblatt newspaper appeared on the Internet. The artist portrayed the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, in front of which, like a bait, the door with the logo has been hanging, and in the corner the laughing general secretary of the Alliance Jens Stoltenberg is depicted. Above the picture it is written: “Endless story. It's time to reconsider our ideas about the mental abilities of the President of Ukraine. ” Obviously, the caricature hints at the uncertainty related to the prospects of Ukraine’s membership in NATO. Before the Summit of the Alliance in Vilnius on July 11–12, official Kyiv insisted on the most clear plan of Ukraine in NATO, and until the last moment it was unclear whether the Zelensky participation in the event would take. The fact that the next issue of the newspaper allegedly came out with such a cover was reported among other Telegram channels "Quickly and accurately🇺🇦"(174,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Fox News Russia (84,000) and "Talipov 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 🅉"(53,000).
In the upper left corner of the cover it is indicated that this is No. 134 for June 14/15/16, 2023 (that is, the Friday number of June 14, which applies to the weekend). The newspaper under such a number really released on June 14, in electronic form it can be found in Online archive Handelsblatt. However, the cover of this issue of the publication looks different.
The technical errors that the authors of the two previous fake cartoles of Handelsblatt were made, which spread on the Internet in the Internet April and in June. On the left, on any cover of the newspaper, two barcodes are depicted. The first refers to the publication as a whole, it is always the same. In the second, a specific issue is encoded. In this case No. 134, the numbers 50028 are indicated there, in the fake - 50024. The numbers in the distributed image are taken from another Friday number - No. 114 of June 16, 2023. And the barcode with numbers 50024 is the same on all three fake covers.
The primary source of Fake was the Telegram channel "Before everyone else. Well, almost. Special operation", Where the post with the cover appeared on July 12 at 11:54 Moscow time (12,000 views). It is this Telegram channel in recent months that most often becomes the primary source of the spread of fake covers of foreign magazines and newspapers. Of the 26 similar images, disassembled “checked” in 2023, in 19 cases the first was written about this by the channel “before everyone else. Well, almost. Special operation ".
Turkish magazine Leman
On July 13, the second cover on the same topic began to spread on the network - this time supposedly the Turkish satirical weekly Leman. The caricature depicts Zelensky, tied to a pillar. Under it is a flaming bonfire of armored vehicles and shells. The President of Ukraine says: "How good that we will soon be taken to NATO!" Publications with allegedly Leman cover appeared in a number of popular Telegram channels, such as "Sheikh Tamir"(124,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and"DPR 🅉 info 🇷🇺"(45,000).
Leman magazine is published once a week on Wednesdays. At the same time, on the distributed cover it is indicated that this is No. 1633 for Thursday, July 13, 2023. We checked the social networks of the Turkish edition (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), as well as official website And they did not find such a picture there. Moreover, No. 1633 really exists, but it I went out July 12, on Wednesday, and under a completely different cover.
There are less noticeable inconsistencies. For example, the font over the barcode in the upper right corner differs markedly from the used on these covers.
Fake primary source this time was the Telegram channel "Before everyone else. Well, almost. Special operation", Where the post with the cover appeared on July 13 at 11:16 Moscow time (11,000 views).
Photo on the cover: collage "Checked"
- Is it true that foreign magazines released these covers dedicated to the Zelensky and Ukrainian church?
- Is it true that foreign magazines released these covers dedicated to Zelensky, Ukraine and Easter?
- Is it true that foreign magazines released these covers dedicated to Zelensky and Ukraine?
- Is it true that foreign magazines released these covers with caricatures dedicated to Zelensky, Dalai Lama and Swiss banks?
- Is it true that the Spanish magazine released these covers with Zelensky and NATO leaders?
- Is it true that foreign satirical magazines released these covers dedicated to the words of the Pope about Chechens and Buryats?
- Is it true that on the three covers of Charlie Hebdo the president of Ukraine is depicted in the form of a dog?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please inform us of this, highlighting the text with an error and by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
