On March 20, 2023, the Georgian-language Facebook accounts (1, 2) published a photo and an alleged quote of US President Joe Biden. According to them, Biden said that he is ready for negotiations with Russian President Gorbachev in order to prevent the escalation of the conflict.
The same quote was also voiced by the host of Georgian pro-Kremlin “Sezoni TV,” Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, noting that this humorous passage is not far from reality. Mzhavanadze’s video was also published on Taonews.ge.
The statement disseminated in the name of Biden that he is ready to negotiate with Gorbachev is fake. In fact, no statement of this content can be found on the White House website or in other open sources.
The viral posts mention that the quote of Biden was distributed by the press office of the White House; however, no statement of similar content can be found on whitehouse.gov. The quote is not found in other open sources and media either.
The last statement in which Biden mentioned Gorbachev was published on whitehouse.gov on August 31, 2022, after Gorbachev’s death. In this statement, Biden noted that Gorbachev was a “rare leader, one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it.”
It is worth noting that Biden is often targeted by satirical news, misinformation and visual manipulations. In the discrediting posts about Biden, the emphasis is sometimes placed on his age. For more information on this topic, see “Myth Detector” articles:
- Video Manipulation Regarding Joe Biden’s Visit to Warsaw
- Who Imposed sanctions against Biden – Saudi Arabia or PANORAMA.PUB?
- Videofabrication of Joe Biden’s Interview Disseminated on Social Media
- The ‘Confession’ of Biden, as if the Sanctions are Ineffective, is Based on an Altered Video
- The Photo of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joe Biden is Altered
About the Sources
Irakli Iremadze, the Georgian-language Facebook user that disseminated the fabricated quote, has been actively disseminating the statements of the leaders of the “Georgian Dream” regarding the draft law on “agents of foreign influence” and published discrediting posts about the protest that erupted against the draft law (1, 2). Iremadze has disseminated disinformation in the past as well:
As for Daat Tsabadze, the user is a pro-Russian troll who has been active on social media since 2019. It participated in the discrediting campaign of the anti-occupation protest. In February 2021, after the arrest of Nika Melia, he criticized American democracy.
Archive links of the disseminated posts: 1, 2, 3
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