On April 18, a video of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, dubbed in Russian, circulated on Facebook, according to which Pashinyan threatened Ukraine and Russia with the annexation of Crimea to Armenia.
Pashinyan: “Brother archaeologists still find Armenian traces in the Sevastopol region. In ancient Armenian, it’s written there: ‘Aram was here, he swung a shovel – he was digging the sea.’ Our ancestors dug out the Black Sea – with shovels, their hands, teeth, whatever they could. One of my grandfathers personally scooped out six tons of water with a bucket before he died of thirst. And why is the Black Sea salty? Because Armenians cried while digging it. We are ready to accept Crimea as part of Armenia.”
The video was also circulated with a Russian-language caption.
The circulating video of Nikol Pashinyan is fake and was released by a satirical channel. The claim that Pashinyan proposed the annexation of Crimea to Armenia is not true. No such statement from Pashinyan regarding Crimea can be found in open or official sources.
The circulated video features the mark @moscowneverlies, which belongs to the satirical Telegram channel “Moscow Never Lies.” The voiceover in the video was likely generated using an artificial intelligence tool.
The channel’s description notes that it publishes satirical and humorous content created using AI tools.
The Pashinyan video was posted on April 10.
The Telegram channel regularly shares visuals and videos generated or modified with the help of AI.
A manipulated video of Dmitry Medvedev in which he allegedly tells Muscovites that a snowy April will become a symbol of radioactive ash that will soon cover Europe; A manipulated video of Yuri Gagarin, in which he allegedly claims that he managed to go to space thanks to Adam Gagarin.
The Myth Detector has previously fact-checked humorous and satirical posts from various Russian-language Telegram channels on political topics that were spread as real information.
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