At the end of June 2025, media and Telegram channels reported that the comedian, who had left Russia for Israel, took refuge in the Russian consulate during the shelling of Tel Aviv. We have checked whether this statement is true.
Notes that Mikhail Shats waited out Iranian shelling at the Russian consulate in Tel Aviv appeared on information portals and in some media (“Arguments and facts", News.ru). Social media users shared the news (“VKontakte", X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, "Classmates"), blogging platforms (LiveJournal, "Zen") And forums discussed whether the diplomatic mission should shelter an actor and showman declared a foreign agent in Russia. Many popular Telegram channels also talked about this: “Evil proof"(225,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Voblya • news"(139,000), "Dmitry Vasilets"(115,000), etc. As evidence, these publications mention a photo that Schatz allegedly took from the window of the consulate, posted on Instagram, and then deleted. Some posts even provide a screenshot of the story: a certain embankment is visible in the picture, and the comment “I didn’t think it would come to this” was superimposed (punctuation preserved. - Note: “Checked”). Sometimes publications are accompanied by screenshots from Google with a photo of the building where the consulate is located, and screencasts from the Google Street View service, where the street in front of it is visible.
Consular Section The Russian Embassy in Israel is located in Tel Aviv at st. Kaufman, 2. Screencasts from Google Street View in viral publications correspond to reality: the surroundings of the building where the diplomatic mission is located are indeed very similar to those captured in the alleged story. However, the consulate does not own the entire building - in this large office center, the Russian representation occupies only the third floor. In addition, judging by the data Google Maps, there are many establishments and institutions located there - from cafes and hostels to offices of commercial companies and representative offices of other countries, such as Nepal. Therefore, even if we assume that Schatz actually published such a story on Instagram, it is almost impossible to establish whether the photo was taken specifically from the window of the consulate, and not from any other institution in this building. At least on the story itself there are no marks about a specific location.
The Iranian rocket attacks in June 2025 were far from the first that the Israelis had to face. Bomb shelters in Israel can be found everywhere: for example, in shopping centers - public, in the basements of houses - communal, in apartments - individual safe rooms (since the early 1990s, developers have been required to provide them when constructing residential buildings). Every resident of the country knows that as soon as an alarm sounds, you should immediately go to the nearest shelter, because time counts in such a situation in seconds. Going specifically to the Russian consulate to hide there from shelling would be an extremely strange decision. In addition, you can only get there by prior appointment. records, so this is not the best option if you need to urgently run to a bomb shelter. Even if we assume that Schatz did not find another place where he could hide from Iranian missiles, he would have to move to the diplomatic mission, because shelling could begin at any moment of the day or night. Iranian missiles could have caught the comedian at the consulate when he was there for other reasons, but in this case it is unlikely that he would have photographed the views from the window.
“Verified” turned to Mikhail Shats for comment. He said that during the shelling he was in Tel Aviv, but was not hiding in the consulate, but in a protected room at home. He also noted that he had not been to the Russian diplomatic mission for more than a year (since March 2024, when the Russian presidential elections were held), and recently he had not even walked past this building and, accordingly, could not post such a story.
Since Instagram stories disappear from the account 24 hours after publication, it is no longer possible to verify whether Schatz posted such a photo. However, it is alarming that all posts and notes with this news contain the same version of the screenshot, allegedly taken 10 minutes later. after the intended publication (and with the same duration bar at the top of the stories). In most cases, the fact that a photo or screenshot exists in only one version indicates a fake, but this largely depends on the original source.
The earliest “Verified” publication found about Mikhail Shats hiding in the consulate appeared in the Telegram channel “Zanoza» June 16, 2025 at 16:04 Moscow time and at the time of writing this analysis it received 8,000 views. The post contained that same story, a screenshot of an image of the consulate building from Google, and a screencast of a walk along the building in Google Street View. A comment was added to them: “Foreign agent Mikhail Shats is hiding from Iranian shelling in the Russian consulate in Tel Aviv. The principles turned out to be not too firm.” At the same time, exactly the same post appeared in the channel “The Countess runs across the pond with a changed face"(91,000 views), and within an hour - in other large Telegram channels, already noticed in the spread of fakes: “Kryminforum ZOV" (15,000), "Voblya • news"(136,000), "Shaman Rahu"(7000), Nina Vatt (56,000), etc.
The Zanoza channel has also previously become a primary source of disinformation. For example, it was there that news first appeared that parent committee school in Kyiv demanded to paint over the US flag on its facade, which rector Kyiv National University banned students from using the words “Russia” and “Russian” in their works, or what was announced in France auction, where relics from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra will be sold. None of these reports were true. It is noteworthy that the previous times after the fake appeared in Zanoz, it was picked up by the same channels as in the case of the news about Schatz at the Russian consulate.
Fake stories are also not a unique case; fake makers have repeatedly used this format to discredit celebrities. For example, previously “Verified” already denied that after a plane crash in the USA, the Ukrainian rapper Potap expressed condolences to everyone on board except the Russians, or that he mocked the death of the actress Anastasia Zavorotnyuk. Then stories from the musician’s Instagram page also served as evidence. However, it later turned out that neither in the first nor in the second case Potap posted anything like that, and the screenshots were fabricated.
Thus, there is no evidence that Mikhail Shats hid from Iranian shelling in the Russian consulate in Tel Aviv. The comedian himself denies this, and the facts presented in viral publications simply contradict common sense. In addition, the primary source of this news is the Telegram channel, which has already been noticed more than once in spreading fake news, including using fake stories.
Cover photo: DedaSasha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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