On June 6, 2025, photos and videos allegedly taken on the Russian-Estonian border were distributed on the RuNet. They show how a message is projected onto the wall of a castle in Narva: it will not be possible to ban the Russian language in Estonia. We have verified the accuracy of this story.
In the Russian-language segment of social networks and in the Russian media, a video and two photos went viral, which, as reported, were filmed in Ivangorod in the morning June 6, at birthday Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, when also noted Russian Language Day. On the wall of a castle located across the river in the Estonian city of Narva, unknown persons allegedly projected a message: “Do you want to ban the melodic, rich, expressive, majestic, melodious, diverse, harmonious, eternal, literary, unique, multifaceted Russian language? Fuck you!” Behind the scenes you can hear roosters crowing and the voice of a man who says: “They say hello to the Estonians there,” and also laughs at the moment of the projection of an obscene word. According to the publication Life.ru, this answer is especially significant since the majority of Narva residents speak Russian. “Estonians hang Ukrainian and rainbow flags, as well as Russophobic posters, on their side. The Russians are responding with their own methods,” the Telegram channel commented on the action.Bad News 18+"(232,000 views at the time of writing this analysis).
According to the TGStat service, at the time of publication of this analysis, more than 800 similar Russian-language posts were posted on Telegram, which in total received about 5 million views. Channels spoke about the projection in NarvaSolovyov"(259,000 views), "Russian Kolobok and green stick"(230,000), "Uncle Slava"(195,000), "Russia now"(167,000), "Knockout"(134,000), Rus_criminal (105,000), "Nightingale droppings"(101,000), "Tsargrad-TV"(71,000), "Sputnik Near Abroad"(25,000), etc. Similar publications appeared in Facebook, where the video was posted by a publicist living in Estonia Arkady Babchenko, and in publics in "VKontakte", among which "Rhymes and punches"(428,000 views), "Leper colony" (241,000) and "Free Peter"(194,000).
In autumn 2022, the Estonian government approved a plan for a gradual transition to teaching in schools and pre-school institutions exclusively in Estonian. Thus, from September 2024, all classes in kindergartens and primary grades must be held in the state language, and for high school students - at least 60% (over time, this proportion will increase). At the same time, teachers obliged speak Estonian at a level of at least B2. At the beginning of 2024, the Narva City Government asked the national government for permission to allow several local schools and kindergartens to continue partially teaching classes in Russian in the new school year, but received refusal.
Section of the Russian-Estonian borders Between Narva and Ivangorod, in recent years it has regularly become the venue for mutual events. So, after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, on the walls Narva Castle already three times by May 9 posted posters with inscriptionssaying that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. By assessment Ministry of Culture of Estonia, such messages, which are clearly visible to residents of Ivangorod, should remind Russians of the “destructive work” that the “Russian terrorist regime” is carrying out on the territory of Ukraine. On the Ivangorod embankment, in turn, on Victory Day, screens and a stage are installed annually, which are turned towards Narva. The screens show a parade on Red Square, and a concert with war songs is held on stage.
As for the proposed action with a projection about the Russian language, it would be simply meaningless. If we assume that the video being distributed is real, then the projector would be installed across the river, on the territory Ivangorod (most likely on the walls Ivangorod fortress). Then the message on the wall of Narva Castle could be seen mainly by people on the Russian bank of the river, like the alleged author of the viral video. In theory, the inscription could only be noticed by those residents of Narva who were directly under the wall.
The publications mentioned at the beginning of the analysis do not say who exactly carried out the alleged action with the projection (the man whose voice is heard in the video behind the scenes does not declare his involvement either). Moreover, all posts and notes contain the same video, as well as two photographs taken from the same angle as the video. Note that the shooting location is located far from the location where the projector was supposedly installed (Verified could not find any images of the projection from that angle). If we assume that the message on the castle wall was actually shown, it turns out that the organizers of the action initially hoped that one of the eyewitnesses would take it off early in the morning, post a photo or video on the Internet, then these materials would go viral and only after that the residents of Estonia would learn about the action.
The authorities of Ivangorod called this obscene message about the ban on the Russian language a fake. Head of the city administration Yuri Parshin in a conversation with the publication “Podem” suggestedthat the video being distributed was most likely edited. “If it had been there, this inscription, the residents would have recorded it on their phones. We don’t have such videos in our “wiretap”. So it's fake. We have a renovated embankment, people walk almost half the night, especially young people, so such things would be noticeable,” the official said.
And indeed, the primary source of the recording was not the Ivangorod public pages. The earliest post with the “Verified” video was found in the Telegram channel “Kryminforum 🇿 🇴 🇻"(16,000 views), where the video was posted on June 6 at 10:38 Moscow time. Two photos appeared a little later - at 11:26 in the Telegram channel "Pool N3"(132,000 views). Our regular readers are familiar with these channels: both were mentioned in many our analyzes of misinformation and have repeatedly become the primary sources of fakes, including fake photos and videos.
The video with an appeal to Estonians was no exception - traces of editing are also noticeable in it. For example, in the recording on one of the supports Friendship Bridge, connecting the two cities, the abbreviation UGC is visible, which is missing in two pictures. This letter combination is usually used to denote user-generated content, but “Verified” cannot explain why such a watermark was left in the video.
The projection was allegedly shown in the early morning (apparently much earlier than 10:38, when the video was posted by Kryminforum 🇿 🇴 🇻), but one photo, judging by the very dark sky, must have been taken closer to night (June 6 dawn was in Narva at approximately 03:55). At night the castle walls bright highlighted, and on the embankment and on the bridge lanterns on poles are burning. However, the viral materials do not show any street lights. In addition, the backlighting of the wall would interfere with the projection being displayed so clearly on it. Judging by the shadows visible in the video, it can be assumed that the video was not actually filmed in the early morning, but during the daytime and then edited through a filter.
Among others detailswhich indicate a fake, you can highlight a blurred background on the wall in the place where the inscription is superimposed, which is why some of the stones are not noticeable dark spots.
Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels regularly publish fake news dedicated to various holidays and memorable dates, and sometimes create similar videos with projections for disinformation. For example, in 2023, for Victory Day, fake rollers, which show that on the facades of the White House in Washington, the Reichstag building in Berlin and supposedly the UN headquarters in New York, the inscriptions “We won in ’45 - we will win now” and “Grandfathers won - grandsons will win” were projected. A year later, a similar fake went viral video with a projection of the Victory Banner on the Brandenburg Gate.
Thus, on Pushkin’s birthday, a message to Estonians that the Russian language could not be banned was not shown on the wall of Narva Castle. Photos and videos were used as evidence, which showed traces of editing and which first appeared on Telegram channels that had been caught more than once publishing such fakes. The mayor of the Russian city bordering Narva also said that no such action was held there.
Cover photo: social networks
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