It Is Not True that Putin Ordered the Destruction of Covid Vaccines in Russia

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This post refers to an article by DainikBidyaloy from Bangladesh, which again, is the source of (dis)information regarding Putin’s order to destroy all COVID vaccines in Russia, quoted by Real Raw News which is satirical site. There is no evidence that Putin gave any such order, nor is there an official government statement on this matter. To that end, on 4th March, Russian Ministry of Health announced that it restocked Sputnik V in parts of the country with shortages of vaccines. Several foreign fact-checking services evaluated this information as incorrect.

 

A Facebook post (screenshot here) claims that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin ordered  the destruction of all the COVID-19 vaccines in Russia. This is not true. On the contrary, the Ministry of Health recently sent new stocks of vaccines in the regions out of stock.

The post says:

Vladimir Putin ordered the destruction of all the COVID-19 vaccines in Russia.

This falsehood which circulates on the social media links an article in English, from DainikBidyaloy online medium from Bangladesh. Real Raw News is quoted as the source of this information, which is a satirical website that posted an article titled: “Putin Orders Destruction of All Covid-19 Vaccines in Russia” on 4th of March 2023. The article claims that the Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the destruction of all stocks of COVID-19 vaccines on Russian soil, citing the “undeniable link” between the so called “Moscow Vax” and the sudden increase in HIV infections among the vaccinated.

This post, however, is a satire that comes from a source that identifies itself as a website that ”contains humor, parody and satire”.

Even though it originated from a satirical website that publishes fictional stories, this article has been picked up by non-satirical websites and shared as if it were true. That is how it reached the social network users in Macedonian language who share this information as if it was true.

While searching the Internet, we found no reliable reports, news, statements or other sources that could confirm the truth of this post. There is no evidence that Putin ordered the destruction of all COVID-19 vaccines, nor is there an official government statement on this matter.

On the contrary, on 4th of March, the Russian Ministry of Health announced that it restocked Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine storages in the parts of the country with vaccine shortages.

According to Ria Novosti, the Russian State news agency, Moscow clinics ran out of supplies of the first dose of Sputnik V which is taken in two doses.

On 5th March, one day after the publication of the (dis)information claiming that Putin was destroying all Covid-19 vaccines, the Russian Ministry of Health announced on Telegram that it recently sent several batches of the Sputnik V vaccine to Moscow and to other regions that reported shortage of supply.

Stocks of the Sputnik V vaccine have already been distributed by the Ministry of Health and sent by the supplier to the city of Moscow, as well as to a number of other regions that reported reduced supplies of vaccine, announced the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry did not specify the other Russian regions with shortage of vaccines that needed restocking.

Sharing satirical news is becoming more and more common on the social networks, as if they were true. The users do not read the information to the end, nor do they perform a basic fact-check on the contents read before sharing it on their profiles, thus manipulating their followers. That way a satirical news can gain great virility and spread as if it were true thereby deceiving many people, as is the case in the post.

According to all stated facts, we conclude that Putin did not order the destruction of all Covid-19 vaccines in Russia. As assessed by several foreign fact-checking services. this information is incorrect. Several foreign fact-checking services evaluated this information as incorrect.

 

 


This article was developed within the framework of the project Promoting Access to Reliable News to Counter Disinformation, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, which has been published on the Macedonian-language version of Truthmeter, was produced with the support of the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The contents of the article is the responsibility of the author and do not always reflect the positions of Metamorphosis Foundation, NED or their partners.

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