Propagandists are trying to link terrorist attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent to Ukraine
Kremlin-run Telegram channels and bots on the social media platform X in Arabic are distributing a screenshot of an “advertisement” from the Ukrainian website OLX, which says that people are allegedly being searched for in Ukraine to write “angry comments” on Russian social networks and online forums. Such activity is supposedly directed against the Russian authorities and dictator Vladimir Putin to destabilize the situation in connection with the June 23, 2024 terrorist attacks in Dagestan.
This is a fake. If you search for the word phrase “angry comments” on OLX, you will find only one ad that is about selling books, rather than looking for botfarm jobs.
Russian propagandists took a real ad from OLX, which related to the provision of services for the promotion of accounts on social media, and used a graphic editor to change the content of the service description.
The author of the real publication, Artem from Kharkiv, told an Ukrinform correspondent that the screenshot was fake.
On June 23, 2024, unidentified individuals staged large-scale terrorist attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent of the Republic of Dagestan of the Russian Federation.
It was immediately stated in Russia that Ukraine was behind the attacks. The Telegram channel of a central Russian media outlet spread a statement by Abdulkhakim Gadzhiyev, a State Duma deputy from Dagestan, that Ukrainian special services and NATO countries were involved in the terrorist attack.
Russian propagandists have already done something similar after the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow. Russian propaganda then launched a wide disinformation campaign. At the same time, Russian representatives did not provide evidence of Ukraine’s involvement.
Andriy Olenin
