A photoshopped picture is circulating online of two shops in Prague that allegedly refused entry to Ukrainians. The owners of the shop has denied these claims. Meanwhile, some social media users claim that Ukrainian refugees were evicted from a hotel in Bulgaria. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
Verdict: False
A CNN spokesperson denied the outlet published such an article. The man pictured has been falsely linked to similar tragedies in the past.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence the Rothschild family owns Reuters or AP. Reuters is owned by the Thomson Corporation and the AP is a non-profit cooperative formed by various newspapers and broadcasters.
An image of Russians forming the number 55 to celebrate the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin rocketing into space has been mischaracterized to wrongly claim that it shows Ukrainian students celebrating Hitler's birthday.
Anyone confusing this shape for a swastika is mistaken. While the the numbers are made with straight lines like a swastika ' lacking the curve that's often used to write the number five ' the angles are off. The two ends of both fives point in the same direction, whereas each end of a swastika points in a different direction.
But what's more, this photo wasn't taken in Lviv in 2022. It was shot in Penza, Russia, in 2016, to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Cosmonautics Day.
The "55" can be seen at the 47 mark, and it's followed by an image of Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot who became the first person to orbit the earth on April 12, 1961.
We rate this post Pants on Fire!
Russian President Vladimir Putin was not responsible for the nationalization of the Russian centralized bank, which took place in 1917.
• The Rothschild family banking business has had an office in Russia since the 1990s, but it has no oversight over the country's currency or monetary policies, which are controlled by the Bank of Russia.
• The Rothschild family long has been the target of conspiracy theories, and their wealth is believed to be responsible for inspiring the anti-Semitic trope that Jewish people "control" the world's money.
Our ruling
A Facebook post says Putin "ended the Rothschild's control over Russia by nationalizing the Russian centralized bank."
Putin did not nationalize the Russian centralized bank; that occurred in 1917.
Evidence does not support the claim that the Rothschild family had control over Russia. The family's banking business has had an office in Russia since the 1990s ' though it recently suspended operations ' but it has no oversight over the country's currency or monetary policies, which are controlled by the Bank of Russia.
We rate this claim False.
Conspiracy theories aimed at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been circulating on social media since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. One recent example, falsely attributed to a “Pentagon official,” is the unfounded claim that Zelensky is the cousin of billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and billionaire philanthropist George Soros are not cousins. The claim is "entirely false," said a spokesperson for Soros' Open Society Foundations.
A viral Facebook post falsely says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and billionaire philanthropist George Soros are related by birth ' one in a series of baseless claims about links between the two.
Soros has been at the center of many debunked claims about his connections to Ukraine, including that he wanted to run the country and that he was using the Ukraine "as a playing field to undermine (former President Donald) Trump's campaign," NBC News reported in 2019.
More recently, false claims have said that Soros admitted on television that he helped overthrow the former Ukrainian president in order to help Zelenskyy take office.
The NBC News story noted that Soros "has long been the target of conspiracy theorists about Jews controlling the world." Soros and Zelenskyy are both Jewish.
We rate the claim that Zelenskyy is a cousin of Soros Pants on Fire!
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia’s talk of “de-Nazifying” Ukraine is a non-starter in peace negotiations. We’ll explain what these claims are all about and why experts say they are misleading.
