Propaganda Video to Smear Biden and Glorify Putin

The two contexts of Biden and Putin’s meetings with children are different. In Putin’s case, one can see that the interview and meeting were previously organized since the cameras on the video are already positioned and he is acting in accordance with the set situation. Biden’s video, on the other hand, is spontaneous, made with a mobile telephone and Biden is not is not uttering inappropriate remarks to the child, as this post wants to present things

 

We are fact-checking a post on the social network Facebook (screenshot here), which shares a video of, allegedly, President of the USA Joe Biden. According to the video, or according to the translation, he is whispering inappropriate remarks to a child during a random meeting. This video is then followed by video fragments from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with a girl where he is presented acting protectively towards her – paternally. The post we are fact-checking states the following:

Is there a difference?

The purpose of such a comparison is to transmit a propaganda message to the public that the President of the USA is a pedophile, pervert and indecent, while the Russian President is a supporter and embodiment of family values, a father-figure and a decent human being. This narrative can be found on social networks since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when propaganda that Russia stands for family values, tradition, and Orthodox Christianity religion, while the West, allegedly, is the promoter of the destruction of those values and incites complete devastation of religious and family values, started spreading.

Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, this is propaganda whose purpose and goal is to smear the West and President Biden as its representative (simplified outlook, easy to project to the general public) opposed to Russia. Truthmeter has analyzed and fact-checked similar cases, which can be found here.

In the first part of the posted video we are fact-checking, Joe Biden can be, allegedly, heard saying the following:

You are one sexy kid, don’t tell your mommy I said that.

The voice saying ”you are one sexy kid” is not Biden’s voice. This video has been altered and the voice added. Biden has not made such an inappropriate remark during the random meeting with the child.

As the fact-checkers of Reuters specify, the clip with Biden whispering inappropriate remarks to the child is digitally altered. The original video of the meeting, is posted by the child’s mother here and one cannot hear Biden mentioning “sexy kid”.

The child’s mother told Reuters that on the Internet there are also graphically altered videos of Biden sniffing her child, which also never really happened. On 9th June, Biden attended an event in Fort Liberty, North Carolina, whose goal was improving the opportunities of the spouses of military personnel and the original video was recorded at that event.

Putin, on the other hand, was recorded in 2018 with a girl appearing in the second part of the video in the post we are fact-checking. The girl is 17-year-old Regina Parpieva who is suffering from blindness. She, allegedly, requested from the RT’s television crew to meet and interview the Russian President, and fulfill her wish to be a reporter for at least one day. The fragments used in the video of this post are from this meeting from 2018 published by RT.

The two contexts in which Biden and Putin met and addressed the children are different.

In Putin’s case, one can see that the interview and meeting were agreed – due to the fact that the cameras on the scene were already set. Putin is acting in accordance with the situation that was previously organized.

Biden’s video, on the other hand, is spontaneously recorded with a mobile telephone and Biden is not whispering inappropriate remarks to the child, as the propaganda wants to present it.

Due to all of the above-noted facts, we assess the video in the post fact-checked as digitally altered to add indecent/inappropriate words and, therefore, to smear the West in contrast to Russia, with the already familiar propaganda narrative that the West is moving towards decadence, while Russia towards the family values. To carry out such a manipulation, a video was abused by means of graphic alteration. We assess the post as untrue due to the manipulative alteration of the video contents.

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