At the end of January 2025, a screenshot of a post allegedly published on the social network by politician X from the Czech Republic circulated in Russian-language social networks and media. We have verified the accuracy of these publications.
The post on the viral screenshot says: “The EU today expanded sanctions against Russia. We will not loosen our grip. Russia is waging a hybrid war with the West and destroying Ukrainians. While we remember the victims of the Holocaust and witness the genocide of the Ukrainian people, Russia today celebrates the anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad from the siege during World War II. Although they shouldn't celebrate, they should relive it. The sanctions should be even stricter. Fingers crossed!” The date of the post is not reflected in the screenshot, however, judging by the mention of the Day of Lifting the Siege of Leningrad and Holocaust Remembrance Day, it should have been published on January 27, 2025.
At first, the screenshot was distributed through anonymous Telegram channels, but later the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation spoke about Nemtsova’s alleged statement Dmitry Medvedev (1.1 million views at the time of writing this analysis), head of the Russian State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs and chairman of the LDPR Leonid Slutsky (378,000), TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov (225,000), etc. Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov statedthat Nemtsova insulted millions of St. Petersburg residents, and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation promised give a legal assessment of the statements of the Czech politician. Notes on this topic were published in RBC, "Komsomolskaya Pravda", Lenta.ru, "Arguments and facts", "Vedomosti"and other Russian publications.
On January 27, 2025, the European Union did not expand sanctions against Russia. On that day the Council of the EU made a decision extend the restrictions already introduced for six months, and also blacklisted three alleged Russian intelligence officers who, according to Brussels, were involved in a cyber attack on Estonia five years ago. On the same day, two important memorial dates associated with the Second World War were celebrated: International Holocaust Remembrance Day (it is dedicated to the day of the liberation of prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops) and Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade. Traditionally, the first date is more widely celebrated in Europe, and the second - in Russia. However, before the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, delegations from Western countries regularly visited commemorative events in St. Petersburg, and Russian officials, in turn, participated in commemoration events at Auschwitz. In recent years, the situation has changed: representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry refuse to come to international events in the former concentration camp, referring to “distort history” in Poland and other countries, and are limited to holding their own commemorative events. On behalf of European countries, flowers to the memorials to the victims of the siege assign diplomats working in Russia.
During this period, the Czech Republic became one of the most irreconcilable countries of the European Union towards Russia. Local politicians initiated or introduced strict restrictions even by European standards: offered restrict the movements of Russian diplomats within the EU, stopped issue visas to Russians, banned entry into the Czech Republic for Russian citizens who do not have biometric passports, and accepted a law that effectively prohibits Russians from obtaining Czech citizenship.
Senator Miroslava Nemtsova has repeatedly spoken out about Russia and Russian politics on your page in X. However, among her “Verified” posts, it was not possible to find the one captured in the viral screenshot. It can be assumed that the politician deleted the tweet, afraid of the public reaction, but other, no less harsh and controversial posts are still available on the blog. For example, after the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall concert hall near Moscow in March 2024, Nemtsova wrote:
“If the Russian terrorist regime in Ukraine
- did not kill or injure hundreds of thousands of people,
- did not commit massacres in Mariupol, Bucha,
— did not kidnap tens of thousands of children,
- did not destroy cultural values and nature,I would have perceived the tragedy in Moscow differently. But I sympathize with Ukraine, which Russia has been attacking like this every day for two years.”
At the time of writing this analysis, the post about Crocus received 59,000 views and more than 200 replays. It can be assumed that a publication with a wish for Russians to survive the siege of Leningrad once again would have caused a comparable reaction from subscribers. In this case, traces of this tweet would remain: in X, when a post is deleted, the comments associated with it do not disappear, they can be found using advanced search. However, "Verified" is not discovered replays left on January 27 under some deleted post by Nemtsova. The senator herself (by the way, also in replays in X) denies, that she wrote a tweet about the blockade, and assertsthat this is a fake.
You can create a convincing fake post in X in a regular browser. Built-in tools allow you to change the text of the actual tweet that the user opened through the page code. All that remains is to take a screenshot. In this case, the modified post will be available only to its creator until the page is updated - the original tweet for all other readers will remain the same.
An argument in favor of the fact that the viral screenshot of Nemtsova’s tweet was created in exactly this way (and not published by her in reality and subsequently deleted) can also be the length of the text attributed to the Czech senator. The post consists of 373 characters, while Nemtsova, judging by the absence of a special symbol next to the username, uses a regular one, not premium account X. For such ordinary users, the length of a post on this social network is limited to 280 characters (including spaces), so in reality the senator would not be able to publish this text.
However, X restrictions do not apply to browser tools: with their help, you can change the page code and create a post with text of any length.
And finally, one more piece of evidence indicating falsification: absolutely all viral posts use the same screenshot. Also, in the Verified publications, I did not find a link to either the post itself (even deleted), or even less to its archived version, which would refute Nemtsova’s words about a fake. This state of affairs is extremely unlikely if the tweet actually existed and would have caused any noticeable reaction in Czech society and beyond.
The first post with a screenshot was published by the Telegram channel “Odessa for victory!» January 27, 2025 at 17:59 Moscow time (the screenshot did not go viral immediately - its active distribution began only on January 29). Previously "Verified" already sorted it out a fake that this channel launched for the commemorative events on January 27: the Chief Rabbi of Poland allegedly condemned the participation of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in the ceremony marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. And this is not the first time that “Odessa for victory!” hits to our reviews.
Thus, the tweet attributed to Nemtsova, judging by the available data, was falsified, and the distribution of the corresponding screenshot began from an anonymous pro-Russian Telegram channel, which has already been repeatedly noted for publishing false information.
Cover photo: official website Miroslava Nemtsova
Read on topic:
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