Manipulation: Putin Portrayed as Hero Saving Ukrainian Children!
The claims presented in the post that Putin is saving children from the “pedophile clutches of the west”, are pure fabrication and conspiracy theory without evidence or facts. The Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for committing war crimes with the deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories in Russia. The claim in the post is absurd, bearing in mind that children of Kremlin officials are studying and living in the Western countries – as reported by CNN. Such is the case with the children of Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Head Spokesman as well as the chidren of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov
Post on Facebook (screenshot here) manipulates with the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the Russian President Vladimir Putin .
Let’s see things the way they are: “Western pedophiles are angry at Putin for saving the children from their pedophile clutches” !!! says the post we are analyzing.
The Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes committed in Ukraine. The announcement of the International Criminal Court points out that there is reasonable base to believe that both Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova are responsible for: war crimes, illegal deportation and resettlement of the population from the occupied territories of Ukraine, on the detriment of Ukrainian children.
Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of Russia, was sanctioned by most Western countries for her alleged role in the abduction of the children.
Lvova-Belova’s efforts specifically include the forced adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families, the so-called “patriotic education” of Ukrainian children, legislative changes to expedite the provision of Russian Federation citizenship to Ukrainian children and the deliberate removal of Ukrainian children by Russian’s forces, reported the US Treasury in September for CNN.
One cannot claim that the Court in The Hague brought charges against Putin because “the Western pedophiles were angry at Putin for saving the children from pedophile clutches”, without offering any proof for such claims. It is not the first time that the opponents of the West are spreading such fabricated stories that Western countries are abusing children, while the alleged heroes like Putin or Trump, are saving them from pedophile clutches. Such stories were – and still are – created about the former President of the United States, Trump, presenting him as the supposed saviour or thousands of children. Truthmeter wrote about these conspiracy theories and apparently they are used to glorify Putin’s work and character without facing the facts.
The fact is that there is no evidence whatsoever that Putin was rescuing children from “the pedophile clutches of the West”, as claimed by the analyzed post. This is absurd, considering the fact that children of Kremlin officials are those studying and living in Western countries.
In April 2022, CNN reported that the children of Putin’s closest people live and study in Western societies, such as the children of Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Press Secretary and the children of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov.
Peskov’s daughter studied at the Ecole des Roches outside Paris – where the annual tuition is about a quarter of her father’s salary and the extracurricular activities include aviation classes. Peskova continued her Parisian education with an internship at Louis Vuitton’s including a marketing degree from a French business school. She even volunteered at the European Parliament. According to the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Peskova and her mother bought a nearly a 180 square metre flat worth 2 million USD in 2016 in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Paris – on Victor Hugo Avenue – located between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe and the luxurious Bois de Boulogne.
The Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, sent his daughter to prestigious universities in London and New York. Even the daughter of the Lavrov’s alleged girlfriend seemingly benefits from his influential position – she posted pictures of herself on a yacht at the Austrian ski resort and from a beach villa of a wealthy oligarch, according to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Polina Kovaleva – whom the UK Government calls Lavrov’s “stepdaughter” even though he is not officially married to her mother – owns a 5.8 million USD flat in one of the most expensive areas in London, as indicated by the recent sanctions imposed against her. The Anti-Corruption Foundation found that Kovaleva bought the flat in Kensington when she was 21 years old.
Much less visible is Lavrov’s daughter, Ekaterina Vinokurova, who is now 39 years old. She studied at Columbia University in New York where she lived for 17 years, before graduating from London School of Economics. Both Kovaleva and Vinokurova were recently sanctioned by the United Kingdom.
Putin himself is no exception of the hypocrisy of strong anti-Western rhetoric. One of his partners, who allegedly gave birth to a daughter, became the owner of a flat worth 4.1 million Dollars in Monaco just a few weeks after the birth of the child, points out the research of the Russian independent media outlet “Proekt” based on the so-called “Pandora Papers”.
His eldest daughter, Maria, apparently married a Dutch businessman. The couple is said to be living in a 3.3 million Dollar flat in the Netherlands. An eight-bedroom villa in Biarritz, France, is said to belong to his younger daughter, Katerina, as well as a mansion worth several million Dollars bought by her former husband, Kiril Shamalov, from Putin’s years-long friend and billionaire Gennady Timchenko.
The allegations presented in the post – that Putin is saving children from pedophile clutches of the West – are pure fabrication and conspiracy theory without any evidence or facts. The Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crime charges related to the deportation of Ukrainian children. Hence, we assess the fact-checked post as untrue.
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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