Doubtful source. As a Ukrainian horror story about poisoned bottled water turned into a Russian

In July 2024, Russian users of social networks and messengers began to warn friends and colleagues: Ukrainian saboteurs sent at least one batch of poisoned bottled water to the Russian Federation, which is sold under the Holy Source brand. At the request of “verified” the social anthropologist Alexander Arkhipov figured out how this frightening news appeared and spread.

The first messages about the poisoned water "Holy Source" appeared in the Russian -speaking segment of the Internet on July 10. The most common warnings in the form of a vocal message from an unknown woman:

“Girls, hello everyone! Look, now my cousin called. Her brother, well, that is, my cousin, in Ukraine, in general, in intelligence serves. He called, warned her: a huge batch of mineral water "Holy Source" poisoned leaked to our Russia. He warned her - to warn everyone who is possible: do not buy the “holy source” for now. They are looking for her, tracking where she went to which networks or to the base. Just in case, warn all of yours there, who ... here, it is "Holy Source". "

Often, after this, the signature “Director threw it off” and a short audio, on which the man manages with a boss in vocal:

“Expand all groups! This is not a fake, this is a real thing, a real case. Among our friends it is confirmed that yes, there are deaths, and fifteen people are already. ”

Some messages were more concise.

Such warnings spread through WhatsApp, X, YouTube and other platforms.

At the same time, neither authoritative media nor state institutions reported cases of poisoning with a “holy source” or other bottled water. The contrast is especially noticeable against the background of how the recent A flash of botulism In Russia - then in different regions more than 400 people were hospitalized, who ate mesh dishes prepared by the Kitchen in the region.

Bottle panic

Anxiety due to poisoned water arose in many regions of Russia-from Rostov-on-Don to Sakhalin. On July 16, the publication "Notepad. Stavropol " interviewed their readers, whether they saw posts with warnings on social networks or heard something like this from friends. More than 78% of respondents replied that they were familiar with these messages.

According to the Yandex.Vordstat service, Russian Internet users actively found out the details of the poisoned water in the history network. From July 10 to July 19, they sent more than 62,000 times to Yandex the search query “The Holy Source is poisoned”, more than 52,000 times - “Poisoned Water of the Holy Source” and more than 8000 times - “The Holy Source is poisoned by Ukraine”. About 10,000 times, users studied the results of issuing to less popular requests for the same topic. Moreover, the share of requests about the “Holy Source” brand itself also grew, and simultaneously with the mention of “poisoned water”. This probably means that when users asked just about the water of this brand, they were primarily interested in the probability of poisoning.

Such a number of requests is an indirect argument in favor of the fact that the panic is really massive. For comparison, in July, Russian users of social networks also distributed a rumor about a hollow in reservoirs (more about it below), but the corresponding requests to Yandex sent hundreds, and not tens of thousands of users.

Mirror fake

All these warnings about the poisoned water “Holy Source” in Russian social networks and chats are a mirror reflection of a similar panic that covered the Ukrainian segment of the Internet.

July 10 at 17:26 Moscow time Ukrainian military Stanislav Bunayatov (call sign of Osman) in his popular (more than 220,000 subscribers) Telegram channel “Talk sniper” wrotethat Russian troops, leaving the positions occupied, specially leave poisoned water there. “They themselves do not drink, they gave me a drink of the PNLE [Russian] - refused,” Bunatov notes. The post is accompanied by a photograph of several bottles of the Holy Source, although the Ukrainian military does not mention this brand in the text. How Bunatov found out that the water is poisoned is unknown - in a commentary to the Ukrainian publication Focus a couple of hours later he admittedthat nevertheless "does not know if anyone did the tests of that water."

On the morning of July 13, in the North Wind channel (32,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), which, according to the description, is conducted by representatives of the Russian group of the North troops, a post about poisoned water also appeared, but the Holy Source brand was not mentioned in it. In the publication It is said (Hereinafter, in the quotes, author's spelling and punctuation are preserved):

“According to prisoners, Ukrainian saboteurs intended to throw a bottle of poisoned water to the positions of Russian troops with the help of BPP. However, due to the abnormal heat, some kind of ignorant of the operation, Ukrainian “supercounts” decided to drag several packs of such water to their unit. As a result, a whole company of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces, which moved to a more profitable position in the toilet, was disabled. ”

Soon, the failure of the alleged operation of the SBU with reference to prisoners was informed, for example, channels "Sheikh Tamir"(134,000 views),"SLOLKOV + 1"(41 000) and"Partisans"(31 000). And the Channel "Ukropsky Fresh" (4800 views) asserted:

“We assume that this is only an official version in which the militants convinced the SBU. In fact, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have great difficulties with water ... So now the militants drink only bottled water. But the Ministry of Defense cannot establish water supply (or does not want to), so the brigades have to take water from the volunteers, and everyone who offers is not necessary to choose.

And then partisans appear, who specially supply water unsuitable for drinking to the troops - many cases of intentional shares of partisans with poisoning of dry people are known. <...> So we assume that this is exactly what happened: the partisans put poisoned water to the militants, and the SBU tried to prevent panic in the troops and spread the rumor that this water itself specially poisoned the SBU itself in order to drop Russian positions. ”

Ukropsky Fresh gave examples of “intentional shares of partisans”, citing his own posts from July 20, 2023 And February 2, 2024 (The latter also reputed Channel "Ukraine.ru" - 114,000 views). They argued that they were looking for in the Sumy region, and in the Kharkov region they were already detained saboteurs who poisoned drinking water for the fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the first case, a photograph of a certain document of the SBU on the verification of agricultural enterprises and the screenshot of correspondence is given as evidence, one of the participants of which reports that “forty military from poisoning rejoiced” (water is not mentioned). In the second case, Ukropsky Fresh illustrated his statements with photographs taken from Press release The Kharkov Regional Prosecutor's Office on the presentation of suspicions in the illegal production of alcoholic beverages to two inhabitants. Prochremlin Telegram channel acted according to the usual scheme-as before It wrote “Verified”, many of his posts are distorted messages of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.

At the same time, the horror story about the water poisoned by the Russians continued to spread among the inhabitants of Ukraine. On the night of July 16, Kyiv blogger Anton Gura Placed In his Telegram channel (113,000 views), a screenshot of messages sent by a certain “commander” named Vladimir. One of them was the same picture of the packages of the “holy source” that Bunatov previously published. “The guys sent from the front. They ask to convey information to other guys, if you see such water, do not drink, ”Gura himself commented on the screenshot.

The next morning the same screenshot with reference to a blogger Published and Ukrop Fresh. In his presentation, the “Holy Source” poisoned water is supposedly supplied to the APU units. Although Gura did not write anything about the supply, the pro -Kremlin Canal saw in his post evidence of his assumption about the successful work of the partisans in the Ukrainian rear. The fact that the Holy Source brand is not represented in Ukraine, and the company's factories Located In Russia, the authors of the "Ukrop Fresh" did not embarrass.

The warning of the warning about the poisoning of the whole batch of water “Holy Source”, which was dispersed in the Russian segment of social networks, and intended not for the military, but for the civilian in the Russian Federation, began to appear shortly after the original post of Bunyatov on July 10. This is evidenced by both the statistics of Yandex.Vordstat and the time of the appearance of the first refutations. In the media controlled by the media working in the occupied territories of Ukraine, they began to be published no later than July 13. On that day on the website "Moscow Komsomolets - Zaporozhye" I went out A note under the heading "The enemy extended misinformation on the poisoning of drinking water in the Zaporizhzhya region." The author did not bring any arguments refuting panic messages, but noted in the publication:

“The information blow is inflicted competently and in the time correct from the point of view of informational impact. The region’s authorities are fighting disinformation, but the task of such stuffing is not even to make you believe in something, but to strengthen negative emotions. It is more difficult to fight this.

However, the information war is tango that two dance. ”

Other fears about poisoned water

Bunatov’s post appeared shortly after another similar warning spread in Ukraine. On the night of July 9, the volunteer Ekaterina Terekhova, who, together with dozens of other Kiev residents, helped to disassemble the blockages of one of the buildings of the Okhmatdet children's hospital, destroyed as a result of Russian shelling, told On Instagram, which became a victim of poisoning:

“Today, as you know, a lot of people from Kyiv brought a lot of water to Okhmatdet ... The police came up. We said that we were leaving them water, and continued to gather. A minute later, the police called us and said: "What kind of water do you have?" You can see my face now. It is red. We all have chemical poisoning. <...> They just poisoned the bottles of water. "

In the video, Terekhova noted that she and several other people who drunk the water made injections, and one of the police officers are pumped out. Panic began - video volunteer Published Large Ukrainian Telegram channels. July 9 Kyiv police reportedthat checks the information that has spread on social networks about the poisoning of drinking water among people who were the day before in the Okhmatdet area. “At the same time, we inform that the medical staff of citizens and police officers did not receive water poisoning,” the press release emphasizes.

The spread of the mirror version of the fake in the Russian Federation also occurs against the backdrop of constant expectations that something is wrong with water. In Russian and Belarusian Chats already The third summer in a row the rumor spreads that in the reservoirs it has been discovered cholera. They brought her there, according to the authors of the mailings, Ukrainian saboteurs.

In the heat, when the consumption of drinking (and especially bottled) water naturally increases, and in some regions In the south of Russia And in the occupied Ukrainian territories Interruptions with water supply are observed, rumors about poisoned water are spread very actively.

They are also heated by the relations of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation on the disclosure of the most phantasmagoric sabotage. So, in September 2023, the press service of the FSB of Russia in the Altai Territory reportedthat a 42-year-old local resident was arrested in Barnaul-he allegedly poisoned the water intended for local mobilized ones. According to the special service, the detainee did this as evidence of his intentions to cooperate with representatives of Ukraine.

Where such fears come from

In a situation of social disaster, one of the most popular and most “fast” myths is a legend about water poisoners in a well. The pest, a representative of someone else's ethnic (Jews) or social (for example, doctors) of a group that infects dangerous diseases, is a frequent character of the XIV century chronicles. At that time, during the spread of epidemics in European cities, Jews were often accused of poisoning rivers and wells. Although Meet And more exotic accusations: so, in one chronicle it is said that the Jews wanted to poison all Christians through mixing frogs and spiders in the cheese.

Similar accusations They did not stop Sound in the 19th century. During the Patriotic War of 1812, Russian peasants suspected the poisoning of water bodies of the French, in the midst of the cholera epidemic of 1830–1831 - Poles, which then Raised the uprising, during the First World War - German Jewish spies. In 1950-1953, during the anti -Semitic campaign in the USSR there were rumors that Jews infect water in schools with tuberculosis.

Why did a similar myth become popular in 2024? In a situation of war and social disaster, the picture of the world of many people strives for binary, becomes black and white. Such a “simplification” arises not just like that: it is a consequence of social evolution. In order to survive in a situation of conflict, the brain must very quickly divide the world into his own and strangers, without any halftones and doubts. Expressed in the language of the researcher of the behavioral economy Daniel Kaneman, the system of making quick decisions comes into business. It is just based on stereotypes and myths, because it is precisely such terrible stories that not only make it possible to understand who is the enemy, but why this enemy must fight - because this enemy is able to commit absolute evil, such as massive infection of water. Therefore, at the front and beyond, in a situation of fear, not only real stories about war crimes, but also unproven horror stories are spreading.

***

Poisoning of bottled water "Holy Source" is not just fake news, it is an inversion of fake news. Apparently, it arose as a result of the mirror turning of Ukrainian front -line hearing that the Russian military poison the water produced under a brand known in the Russian Federation. The nucleus of hearing was preserved at the same time, only the “villains” changed - instead of the Russian military, they became Ukrainian saboteurs.

In the past two weeks, Russian federal and regional media have regularly release notes with a refutation of fake about poisoned water “Holy Source”. Appeared It is also on the TASS agency website in the thematic section “TASS Tested”.

But all these refutations, judging by the Yandex.Vordstat, did not hit a wave of panic messages and requests. This is probably due to this, including with a weak evidence base. For example, TASS in his analysis rests on the fact that all products are equipped with a marking that guarantee quality, plastic bottles are sealed, and anyone can see the safety of the contents, going on a virtual tour of the manufacturer. Some other publications are simply on duty. Center for information and psychological operations As part of the special operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the result of which many Russian propaganda resources call almost any publication on the Internet that contradicts their own view of the world.

People who live in a situation of permanent social disaster are not so important who exactly poisoned the water. In anticipation of the next misfortune, the desire to warn their about a possible danger is much more significant, and rumors regarding life and things close to the body are advantageous in distribution. 

Photo on the cover: YouTube screenshot

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