In November 2024, reports appeared on the Internet that the President of Ukraine allegedly bought an elite hotel at a ski resort in France. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
On November 29, Telegram channels and social network users began sharing news: “Film Heritage Inc., a company registered in Belize and owned by the Zelensky couple, has acquired the five-star Palace des Neiges hotel, located in the most prestigious part of the Courchevel ski resort.” According to these posts, the transaction cost was €88 million. According to the TGStat service, in a few days this news received about 2.5 million views in Russian-language Telegram. It was shared by channels such as “Sanya in Florida"(501,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Putin on Telegram"(184,000), "Observer" (173,000), "Kirill Fedorov"(122,000), "Voice of Mordor"(120,000), etc. State Duma Deputy Adam Delimkhanov added: “Apparently, the US puppet, drug addict and ElGBET member Zelya is preparing a safe haven for himself when Russia defeats their satanic lair.” Similar posts also appeared in Russian-language Media, social networks X, TikTok, Instagram And Facebook.
About Belizean company Film Heritage Inc. became widely known in 2021, when a consortium of journalists from more than 100 countries investigated the “Pandora Files,” a leak of 12 million documents. They contained information about the owners of offshore companies from different countries, including this company, the final beneficiary of which was the first lady of Ukraine Elena Zelenskaya (her husband came out from among the owners in 2019, when he won the elections). Since then the company has several times was mentioned including in fake investigations into Zelensky’s expensive real estate transactions.
In posts about the purchase of the hotel, the original source of the news is indicated - the French publication Les Echos de la France (“The Echo of France” - French). Indeed, on November 28, 2024, it appeared on his website article with the headline “Zelensky’s company bought a hotel in the Courchevel ski resort.” The text states that the purchase was made through Film Heritage, and provides a video that, judging by the EF logo, was produced by the same publication. In the video, a man with a microphone in his hand stands in front of a hotel and says in French: “I am now in front of the luxurious Palace des Neiges hotel.” He goes on to say that a month ago the hotel was sold to a new owner - the Ukrainian president - and gives the floor to the presenter in the studio. He replies: “Thank you, Francois” - and continues to talk about the supposedly completed transaction.
The text of the article gives link to the website of the hotel complex allegedly acquired by Zelensky. At the time of writing this analysis, the resource is no longer available, but the Internet Archive service has preserved it copy for November 29. The authenticity of the site is questionable. Firstly, all internal links on it led to page with the text “Maintenance mode. The site will be available soon." Secondly, according to the Whois service, the domain name hotelpalacedesneiges.com was registered on November 22, 2024, a few days before the news we were analyzing began to spread on the Internet. Finally, thirdly, the hotel has an original website, registered back in 2007 at a different address: palacedesneiges.com.
“Verified” was unable to find any mention of Zelensky’s purchase of the hotel in reputable international media. But statement The Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer corporation, which acquired this hotel complex back in October 2023, released a statement on this topic. Company stated, that he plans to soon reconstruct the hotel and hopes to open it at the end of 2026, and the information about the purchase of the Palace des Neige by the Ukrainian president is fake.
The website of the Les Echos de la France portal is also not trustworthy. His domain name is lesechosdelafrance.fr, as testify Whois data was registered on November 25, 2024 - three days before the publication of the news about Zelensky. Some others articles portal copy the text exactly publications French media. In addition, the Les Echos de la France website does not contain any information about this project, its employees and contacts, as well as links to its social media accounts. The name of the news portal resembles a real French media Les Echos, which, apparently, was done to confuse readers.
As for the correspondents from the video published in the fake article about Zelensky, “Verified” was unable to establish their identities. Judging by Google Street View, a journalist with a microphone is actually standing in front of the Palace des Neiges hotel. But the fragment with the participation of the presenter was most likely superimposed on the publicly available screensaver, simulating a news studio (it was published by a YouTube channel from Indonesia back in 2022).
In RuNet, information about the purchase of the hotel by Zelensky began to spread on November 29, when several users of the X network published translation of French and English tweets. In Russian-language Telegram, the news gained popularity after the publication of the channel “Voice of Mordor» December 2 at 13:00 Moscow time.
This is not the first time that such a scheme for creating fake news has been used as part of anti-Ukrainian propaganda to spread false stories about how the Ukrainian president is buying up luxury real estate. "Verified" already sorted it out fakes about how Zelensky allegedly acquired Joseph Goebbels’s villa in Germany, the mansion of Charles III in Great Britain, Sting’s winery in Italy, a casino in Northern Cyprus and other objects. In a number of cases, the creators of fakes resorted to the same method: first, a website was created that mimicked European or American media, and a fake video was published there. A similar approach was used to discredit other politicians: for example, “Verified” sorted it out a fabricated interview with a girl who was allegedly run over by US Vice President Kamala Harris in 2011. The corresponding video was published on a fake website of a non-existent American media outlet.
Thus, there is no confirmation that Vladimir Zelensky acquired the Palace des Neiges hotel in Courchevel. The French media website where the original article appeared was created a few days before the fake was published, as was the fake hotel website. The Monte-Carlo SBM group, which acquired the hotel in 2023, also denied the news.
Cover photo: collage “Checked”
Read on topic:
- A mansion in Florida, a villa in Egypt, Goebbels’ house: we analyze reports about real estate purchased by Zelensky
- Is it true that Zelenskaya spent more than $1 million on jewelry during her visit to New York?
- False authorities. How the BBC became the brand of choice for fake video creators
- Microsoft. Russia leverages cyber proxies and Volga Flood assets in expansive influence efforts
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