Fact Check
Friday 27 December 2024
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![Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation)]()
Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation)
"Preliminary: after a collision with birds, due to an emergency situation on board the aircraft [Baku-Grozny flight of Azerbaijan Airlines], its commander decided to go to an alternate airfield — Aktau was chosen."
Read more...Multiple shrapnel holes in the plane’s fuselage and its altitude at the time of incident contradict the bird theory. Azerbaijan accused Russia of hitting the passenger jet with a missile. The pilot did not decide to fly to Aktau; Russian airports denied the airliner an emergency landing. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
President of Russia
"[W]e need to continue to further expand military and military-technical cooperation with allies and partners who are ready and willing to work with us, which includes most countries around the world."
Read more...Five ex-USSR countries maintain military alliances with Russia. Moscow also is engaged in transactional military partnerships with China, Iran, India, and North Korea. By comparison, NATO has 32 members. -
![Paul Kagame]()
Paul Kagame
President of Rwanda
"Now the cooperation [with China] presents more value in terms of trade, investment. This relationship doesn't come with a lot of strings attached like we have had with many other parts of the world."
Read more...Analysis shows that China is burdening poor African countries with debt while taking collateral in the form of natural resources. Through ''debt trap diplomacy,'' China has become the single largest shareholder of African resources and infrastructure. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
Russian president
"Let me stress once again, so that no one accuses us of nuclear saber-rattling: this is a policy of nuclear deterrence."
Source: Kremlin.ruRead more...By VOA Fact Check estimates, top Russian officials made 135 public nuclear threats between February 2022 and December 2024. Vladimir Putin made 27, ranging from direct threats to ordering nuclear strike simulations and changing nuclear posture. -
![Egountchi Behanzin]()
Egountchi Behanzin
activist
"Is it a coincidence that the Congo has become an experimental laboratory where populations have become guinea pigs to allow the World Health Organization, the #BillGates foundation, American European pharmaceutical firms and American biolabs to test viruses and other dirty things?"
Read more...Russia has been pushing disinformation campaigns targeting U.S. health campaigns in Africa. Egountchi Behanzin, a French Togolese activist, has been exposed in several investigations for discrediting U.S. and Western health campaigns in favor of Russia. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Kremlin spokesman
"[T]he figures announced with regard to losses on both sides, it is obvious that they were presented in the Ukrainian interpretation … Ukraine’s losses are multiple times higher than those of Russia.”
Read more...Donald Trump's casualty figures align with July-October Western intelligence, defense, and military sources, differing from Ukrainian estimates. All Western data indicate Russia has suffered greater military losses than Ukraine in the conflict. -
![Press TV]()
Press TV
Iranian state news outlet
“Syrian security sources have, however, confirmed that ‘Hama is completely safe, with armed forces stationed around the city.’”
Read more...By the time Iran’s Press TV portrayed reports of successful rebel advances in Hama as Western propaganda, the Syrian army already lost the city. -
![Yahya Saree]()
Yahya Saree
Houthi military spokesperson
“The operation was carried out with 16 ballistic and winged [cruise] missiles and a drone in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and the hits were accurate and direct.”
Read more...The is no evidence the Houthis successfully struck a U.S. warship. All three commercial vessels escorted by the Navy reportedly are intact and en route to their destinations. -
![Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia]()
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia
"The decision of the Georgian government not to raise the issue of negotiations with the EU until 2028 and to decline EU grant budget support does not mean suspension of Georgia’s European integration process."
Read more...Delays in European Union negotiations and rejection of financial support significantly undermine practical steps required for accession. This move compromises Georgia's EU alignment, stalls reforms, and fuels European doubts about Tbilisi's genuine commitment to integration. -
![Global Times]()
Global Times
“The [MOFCOM] spokesperson emphasized that China is firmly opposed to ‘forced labor’ in any form and there is no forced labor in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.”
Source: Global Times, November 26, 2024Read more...United Nations, independent researchers and media have all documented credible allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang. -
![Korir Sing’Oei]()
Korir Sing’Oei
Principal Secretary, Kenyan Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs
"Kenya is a safe haven for many people and has been for many years and will be for years to come."
Read more...State-sanctioned abductions, refugees included; extrajudicial killings; torture and enforced disappearances are on the rise in Kenya, according to independent reports by international observers, the United Nations, local rights groups and investigative journalists. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
Russian president
"[T]here are no means of countering such weapons [hypersonic ballistic missile Oreshnik] today. … It is impossible."
Read more...Hypersonic weapons like Russia’s Oreshnik missile present a formidable challenge to existing missile defense systems. However, defenses capable of intercepting them do exist.
