As always since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Wednesday, marked by the announcement of the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists by Vladimir Putin, gave rise to false informative mornings of the real ones. The fear of Russian citizens of being mobilized by force and having to go to war in Ukraine has thus inspired the publication, on social networks, of images that are completely out of context.
Traffic jams on the border between Russia and Finland
One video, in particular, was posted on Twitter Wednesday just before 3pm before being “retweeted” (ie shared) more than 10,000 times and “placed” by nearly 25,000 Internet users, on the branches arrested on Thursday morning. We see a gigantic traffic jam, with dozens of cars stopped in single file.
The internet user behind the publication, who presents himself as an “independent journalist”, writes that “the traffic jam on the border between Russia and Finland has accumulated up to 35 km and is getting longer by the hour”. “This is the only border still open for Russian civilians with Schengen visas, after Putin announced that he would send 300,000 new soldiers to Ukraine,” he adds, implying that Russian citizens are fleeing their country en masse.
A few hours later, Finnish border guards indicated on Twitter that “the situation on Finland’s borders has not changed with the announcement of the Russian mobilization”. “There are the usual queues, with nothing to report at the moment,” their boss said. Furthermore, “videos are circulating on social networks” but “at least some have been shot previously and are now taken out of context”, added the border guards.
The situation on Finland’s borders did not change with the announcement of the Russian mutiny. There are videos circulating on social media, at least some of which have already been shot before and are now taken out of context. There is incorrect information circulating.
– Border guard (@ border guards) September 21, 2022
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The video above is one of them. We find it, in fact, posted on YouTube on Monday 19 September, two days before Vladimir Putin’s speech. The account that shared it specifies that the images date back to “a few weeks ago”, without further details. On Wednesday, he made it clear in a “pinned” comment that these “were shot before any announcement”.
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Several clues have already suggested that this video dates back to this summer. The vegetation is immaculate green, the trees seem not to have lost their leaves yet, and some motorists or passengers are dressed in a simple T-shirt. However, in several cities located near the border between Russia and Finland, the temperature did not rise above 12 ° C on Wednesday.
Seeing such videos appear out of context “is inevitable until we have collectively developed a vigilance on everything circulating on the Internet, starting with not sharing videos of which we have not tried to verify or cross-source”, says Rudy Reichstadt, founder of the Observatory. of the conspiracy.
other videos, very divided especially this Thursday morning, show scenes of traffic jams allegedly shot in the last few hours on the border between Russia and Mongolia. The location seems exact but it is not possible, at the moment, to certify that they are also recent.
Massive plane loss
In addition, many Internet users are broadcasting an animation of Radar 24 flight showing all flights that took off from Moscow or St. Petersburg on Wednesday, in the hours after or before Vladimir Putin’s martial statements, talking about a “leak or a “exile” of Russian citizens.
