On August 15-17, 2023, Russian propaganda media (1,2,3,4,5) and Russian-language Facebook pages and Facebook accounts (1,2,3,4,5) disseminated the information that in celebration of the explosion in Dagestan, Russia, a special event “Fiery Makhachkala” was planned in the night club Forsage 8 in Kyiv. The information is accompanied by a screenshot of the club’s Instagram story, on which information related to the relevant event can be seen.
The claim that a celebratory event related to the explosion in Makhachkala was planned in the Kyiv night club is disinformation. The club itself denied the information in correspondence with “Myth Detector.”
No event to commemorate the explosion that happened in Makhachkala, Dagestan, was planned at Club Forsage in Kyiv. “Myth Detector” contacted the club, and in correspondence, the representative noted that the disseminated information is a provocation that serves to incite a feud, which the club has nothing to do with. The statement also mentions that, in general, performances using fire are not performed at Forsage due to safety reasons, and have not been performed in the past.
Posts related to the announcement of a similar event cannot be found on the official Facebook and Instagram pages of the club, nor on their website. In addition, on the poster of events held on the website of the club, it can be seen that the event scheduled for August 18 was the performance of artists Dj Star and Dj Leo.
It should be noted that the club itself responded to the disseminated claims on August 16 and published a corresponding statement on Instagram stories. Since Instagram Story-type posts are only available for 24 hours, these posts cannot be viewed at this time. However, the Ukrainian fact-checking platform, StopFake, verified the claims and saved the screenshots of the respective posts.
“Many dignified people from Dagestan live in Kyiv, who often visit us and support Ukraine. All reasonable people understand that such a poster could not be in our club. It is unbelievable that such a poster would have been published for 22 hours without a strong reaction from those it offends. Don’t believe the provocation of the evil empire,” reads the statement issued by the club.
On August 15, 2023, an explosion occurred at a gas station in Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, killing more than 30 people and injuring more than 100 people.
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