Russian media shared a fake screenshot from Buckingham Palace’s website with a message about Charles’ alleged death.
On Monday, March 18, many Ukrainian publications and Telegram channels spread the news about the death of King Charles III of Great Britain. Even Buckingham Palace was forced to respond to the fake, and the message itself took place in X-Trends in a number of European countries, particularly in Germany.
Subsequently, it emerged that the fake news was the work of the Russian propaganda machine. Why Moscow “buried” the king is beyond the story.
Where everything started
On February 5, it was officially announced that the 75-year-old Charles was diagnosed with cancer, and doctors recommended that he postpone all public duties. As of yesterday evening, information began to spread on Twitter (X) that the flags at Buckingham Palace were lowered to half-staff due to the “probable death of the King or Princess of Wales,” which, by the way, now has also health. Problems.
Today, the Russian media launched a news story with an alleged screenshot from the website of Buckingham Palace, where it was reported that the king died on Sunday. The screenshot spread on social networks around the world and ended up on the British segment of Twitter (X). As a result, journalists decided to check the information and “put” the palace website.
screen
At first, it was not immediately clear that Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine was directly behind it. However, the screenshot was first shared by the Russian Telegram channel Mash, which has 2.3 million subscribers.
screen
A few hours later, the message spread to the Russian-language media. Mainly in Russia, but also in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia and other countries.
Refutation
The British Embassy in Kyiv tweeted (X): “We want to inform you that the news of the death of King Charles III is fake.”
But at the time, dozens of publications had spread shockingly false reports about the British king’s death, and millions of people had read them.
screen
It is worth noting that Buckingham Palace responded to the situation six hours later and released a video of King Charles III taking part in the ceremony in London.
Russian media reacted strangely
Three hours after the initial report, Mash said on its platform: “The fake news about the death of Charles III spread quickly and was just as quickly refuted. The King of Great Britain is alive and continues to do his business. At least that’s what Buckingham Palace Claims. Same.” ” officials said after the first news about the death of Elizabeth II. Literally four hours later, an official message came: the queen died. What is it and everything is so rosy for the current British monarch? “
Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti corrected its preliminary information, acknowledging that it was based on “rumors”, saying: “The Buckingham Palace press service denied to RIA Novosti the rumor about the death of King Charles III. He continues to carry out official and private affairs. Death information “Charles has appeared in the past in many Russian sources. The basis for this is a certain message, whose author is attributed to Buckingham Palace and which, apparently, turned out to be fake.”
The TASS news agency reported that the story was fake. A Russian newspaper published by Putin’s government wrote: “King Charles III continues to attend work and private affairs, Buckingham Palace said. In the past, several Telegram channels published no longer -verified and false information about the death of the monarch.”
What is this?
According to foreign media, the “fraud” involving the monarch took place after the UK and other Western countries criticized Vladimir Putin’s “victory” in the “rigged” presidential election. So, the Russians want to divert attention from the “election” or take revenge for criticizing the Kremlin, journalists believe.
Let’s remember that the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, congratulated Putin in advance on his “convincing election victory.” German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock said the Russian vote was “an election without a choice.”
And his British colleague David Cameron raised the topic of elections in the occupied territory of Ukraine. He wrote in Platform X that “the elections were held illegally, without independent monitoring by the OSCE.”
The spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, responded to these words, writing: “London looks pitiful.”
New Correspondent.net on Telegram and WhatsApp. Subscribe to our channels Athletistic and WhatsApp
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.