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In October 2024, a video went viral on social media that allegedly showed a Russian army advertisement being displayed on a billboard in Times Square. We have verified the authenticity of this video.
The 16-second recording began circulating in Russian-language Telegram channels on October 9. The video was allegedly filmed in downtown New York. It shows an electronic billboard located on the wall of a skyscraper, where an advertisement is shown offering to sign a contract with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Tatarstan. “Join the army of victory! RUB 4,500,000 — wages for the first year,” says the board. A man’s voice is also heard off-screen: “It’s normal that the Tatars can surprise you. Sign the contract in Tatarstan." At the bottom of the ad there is a phone number and a QR code with the letter Z, which leads to the public “For ours! | Patriot Community» on VKontakte. Telegram channel «Yuri will be Dud"(46,000 views at the time of writing this analysis; not connected with journalist Yuri Dud) at the same time clarified that the advertising in Times Square was paid for by the Tatarstan authorities.
Many authors of war-time Telegram channels liked the idea of such a video. For example, in the channel "Politjoystic™"(51,000 views) the video was commented on: “The Tatars rule.” However, there were those who condemned the initiative. Yes, the channelDads read the news” (50,000 views) expressed the opinion that the alleged advertising is a “way of government PR” using taxpayers’ money. The author believes that the funds spent should have been allocated not to an American contractor, but to the purchase of drones for the Russian army. The channels also wrote about the video:Antonov is such an Antonov"(288,000 views), "Gossip"(110,000), "Three heroes and Zelensky drug addict"(101,000), "Mardan" (90,000) and "Ramsay"(54,000). IN "Sokol"(183,000 views) the video was posted with the question: “Tatars are ahead of the rest or photoshop?” In addition, the video can be found on VKontakte (examples here And here) and on websites Media.
A special website was created to recruit residents of Tatarstan for the war with Ukraine heroes-tatarstan.ru, where those who wish can enter into a contract with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. This resource contains a single telephone hotline regarding contract service issues, as well as numbers selection point And reception center for such a service. However, they are all different from the contact shown on the screen from the viral video (+79655897483). However, this number is also on the website There is, but it is not needed by potential recruits, but by recruiters. The fact is that since July 2024, a special “promotion": local residents can receive 100,000 rubles. for each person who, at their invitation, signed a contract and left for a military unit.
As for the viral video itself, there really is shown the central part of Manhattan. At the time of recording the operator was near the building Two Times Square in Times Square at the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. However, the alleged advertisement was written in Russian and contained Russian contacts, so it is not entirely clear what effect it was supposed to have.
Talking about the video being distributed (without raising doubts about its authenticity), the Telegram channel “Itil" (52,000 views) said that Times Square in New York "has long been a place of amazing events." At the same time, the author of the post remembered that on the same screen (although some resources wrong determined building like a skyscraper One Times Square) already supposedly showed advertising special economic zone (SEZ) "Alabuga", located in the Elabuga region of Tatarstan. Reportedly Media, they produce drones used for attacks on Ukraine, which is why in April 2024 Ukrainian drones attacked "Alabuga" hostel. Shortly before this, the US Treasury entered sanctions both against the SEZ and against its leadership and some residents.
Footage allegedly depicting an advertisement for Alabuga in New York from November 17, 2022 is true spread via a variety of Telegram channels and media, including Russian state news agencies TASS And "RIA Novosti" Moreover, along with the photo, a 37-second video. The video features the voice of a blogger known as Sanya in Florida. Record it published on his now deleted YouTube channel. On it he says:
"Guys, today I decided something... I got up in the morning and thought: let me go to New York. Why not? The decision-making center after all. You kept asking me: “Sanya, get to the center of acceptance!” Remember that joke about the missile forces? “If you want to get to the USA, join the missile forces.” But I wanted to show you something today - it’s just... I didn’t expect this, to be honest! Look, here is a banner in Russian in the very center of New York, in the very heart of America, a banner in Russian. It says here: "It's time to go home." This is the sign - "Alabuga". (Laughs.) I didn’t expect this, to be honest.”
Comparing both records, you can be sure: the advertisement for a contract service in Tatarstan was definitely forged. Both videos, shot from the same angle, show the same pedestrians, the same clouds in the sky, and the same sequence of commercials shown on different screens. It turns out that someone edited the recording that was distributed on the RuNet back in November 2022, changing both the video and audio tracks there. According to TGStat, Tatarstan Telegram channels were the first to post a video about advertising a contract service.
As for the veracity of reports about the demonstration of advertising for the Alabuga SEZ in Manhattan, Verified can neither confirm nor deny this story.
According to a press release on the official website SEZ, the video was actually shown in Times Square, in a conversation with Kommersant this confirmed official representative of Alabuga Daniya Utalieva. According to her, the advertisement was placed for the purpose of recruiting and was primarily aimed at immigrants from Russia specializing in the field of aviation, microelectronics and IT. To the Tatar-inform publication about the authenticity of the video told and Alabuga General Director Timur Shagivaleev: “It’s true, we placed an advertisement in Times Square. Now it is necessary for people with the most modern specialties in aircraft manufacturing, microelectronics, and biotechnology to return back to Russia, Tatarstan, and Alabuga. We need them to develop our country. It is obvious that competition is intensifying and we are truly competing with world leaders.” However, he did not specify how much money was spent on the PR campaign. “The advertisement will not be broadcast for so long. More important is the symbolism of the event, that we are waiting for specialists. The cost of advertising is not so important. It is important that people will bring billions of dollars worth of knowledge, which will allow the development of industry, including the development of industry in Yelabuga,” added Shagivaleev.
At the same time, this story contains many signs of a fake. For example, the author of a viral video is a pro-Kremlin blogger whose Telegram channel was caught in disseminating dozens of false messages, including fabricated videos. At the same time, “Verified” could not find any mention of such advertising in the American media or similar videos shot by other Internet users. Given the dense flow of tourists and locals in one of the central squares of a large metropolis, it seems unlikely that no one else would pay attention to the Russian-language advertising.
As mentioned above, a collage of two photographs was also distributed on the RuNet, which the Tatar-inform publication signed as a photo sent by the SEZ press service. “Verified” studied one of them and came to the conclusion that it was made in the same place and almost at the same time when the viral video was filmed. The photo and video probably have the same author.
The Tatarstan media also provided another confirmation of the authenticity of the advertisement - a recording of an online broadcast from a webcam installed in Times Square. For example, the site 116.ru published a screenshot showing the date November 16 and local time 15:05. The Tatarstan online newspaper “Business Online”, in turn, posted The 25-second video does not have a date or time stamp, but also shows the video being shown on the side of a skyscraper. “Advertising for Alabuga has appeared in Times Square at least once in the past 12 hours,” the site says. Both publications did not provide a link to the broadcast itself, and by 2024 it is unlikely to have survived, so it is extremely difficult to verify the authenticity of the recording.
Telegram channel “Dumb Tatar PR Man”, covering media and advertising news in Tatarstan, named messages about a video advertising “Alabuga” in New York were ridiculously photoshopped and stated that the SEZ had decided to invest in PR in federal Telegram channels. Apparently, the first of them was the channel "Pool N3"(953,000 views), which repeatedly posted advertising records about Alabuga. The photo appeared there on November 17 at 09:20 Moscow time. A few days later, “Stupid Tatar PR man” paid attention to the publication Kazan online magazine Enter and suggested that the publication had “collaborated” with the SEZ. So, on November 21 on his social networks appeared a selection of photos with humorous captions written on another screen on the same building in New York. “Following Alabuga, we decided to conquer Times Square,” the caption said. At the same time, according to screenshot “Stupid Tatar PR man”, now inaccessible pages were tagged on Enter’s Instagram account @alabuga_polytech And @alabuga_development. At the time of writing this analysis, the text of the signature has been changed: only a non-working account is mentioned there @sezalabuga, and an account is tagged in one of the photos @aldevelopment1.
In October 2023 “Stupid Tatar PR man” told about another (according to him, fake) advertisement of the Alabuga SEZ in the USA - this time in Los Angeles, near the place where SpaceX headquarters was then located. Many Tatarstan media wrote, that the billboard was installed on the eve of the opening of the headquarters of the Alabuga Polytech educational project. At the same time, the advertisement had several English-language inscriptions, including “Elon Musk, what about the moons of Jupiter?” and “Sergei Korolev in our DNA.” There was also a QR code that led to a now defunct website. elonpoyekhali.com with a 37 second video about investment projects, which supposedly can be implemented on the satellites of Jupiter. Mostly only Tatarstan resources wrote about this billboard, although publications also mentioned such advertising Meduza And "Siberia.Realities" However, among the evidence of the existence of a billboard advertising the SEZ near the SpaceX headquarters is only one photo. "Verified" sent requests for comment to the company Becker Boads And Enforce Media, who are responsible for this billboard in Los Angeles, but have not received a response.
Update October 25, 2024: Enforce Media said it did not advertise for Alabuga in Los Angeles. “We have access to this billboard, but this is not our client,” the press service said.
He also spoke out about viral advertising in Times Square. Yuri Degtyarev - former general producer of Rutube, as well as the founder of the portal “Thank you, Eva!” and the My Duck's Vision studio, which, among other things, dealt with creation fake news feeds. Media manager's comment led KazanFirst publication: “This is fake as hell. I don't think there's even anything to discuss here. For three kopecks, a fake, made on the knee simply because nothing else happened. Let's start: how would Alabuga do this in New York? No way. Obviously, “Alabuga” does not have the resources that they could use for the screen.” Note that Degtyarev for a long time cooperated with media manager Kristina Potupchik, who, according to journalistic investigations, is now leads one of the Russian fake factories. By words Dude, the My Duck’s Vision project has launched hundreds of ducks in the media, many of which are supposedly still unsolved. Moreover, the channel “Dumb Tatar PR Man”, referring to unnamed “Moscow colleagues”, statedthat the video about “Alabuga” was created by Degtyarev’s studio.
“Verified” has already refuted fabricated recordings many times, some of which were allegedly filmed in New York, including Times Square. We also examined cases where the same video basis was used for different fakes. For example, this was the case with two rollers, which allegedly showed projections being shown in 2022 and 2023 in New York on the US Mission to the UN building.
Thus, advertisements for contract services in Tatarstan were not shown in New York. In fact, the viral video was created based on a video that went viral in November 2022. That recording allegedly captured an advertisement for the Alabuga SEZ, which may have been displayed on an electronic billboard in downtown Manhattan.
Cover photo: social networks
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- "Gvara Media". Fake. In the center of New York they showed an advertisement for the military service with a contract in Tatarstan
- Is it true that Zelensky was compared to a black hole in an advertisement for a museum in Times Square in New York?
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