Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky takes questions at a press conference on April 23, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.
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One such organization was the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications, which described the fake video as “very primitive,” but the researchers pointed out that because Russians have been fed a diet of almost non-stop disinformation about the war in Ukraine for two months, they have been primed to believe everything they hear. “If Russians believe lies on Russian TV, why not believe this?” the Center wrote in a Telegram post.And Russians have been primed for months to believe that Zelenskyy is a drug user.
The conspiracy theory, which has no basis in fact, may date back to the decision by Zelenskyy to submit to a drug test during the presidential election in April 2019 at the request of incumbent Petro Poroshenko, who has since been charged with high treason.The claims that Zelenskyy is a drug addict first surfaced from pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets in December 2021, as Russian President Vladimir Putin was beginning to amass troops along the border with Ukraine.
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