On March 12th, Ermile Nemsadze, a former military currently affiliated with the far-right group “Georgian March,” published a Facebook post stating that the Zelenskyy regime used to hold gay parades in Kyiv and burn Orthodox churches. Attached to the post are two photos, on which we see a burning church and a small group of people with LGBTQ + symbols.
The post contains a number of false and manipulative elements:
- The church shown in the photo is located in Russia, and it burned down in 2012. Consequently, the claim that Zelenskyy’s government burns churches is false.
- The “Equality March” depicted in the photo was held in Kyiv in 2017, two years before Zelenskyy’s presidency. Hence, the picture is being disseminated manipulatively.
The disseminated post aligns with the Kremlin’s narrative, claiming that Ukrainians have lost their way to the Orthodox Church and traditional identities.
-
Instead of proving that Ukrianinans condemn Orthodoxy, the picture depicts a burning church in Russia
Ermile Nemsadze claims that the church shown in the photo is located near the Kyiv-Pechora Lavra and evidences how the “regime” of Ukraine burns down Orthodox churches. The picture, in fact, shows the Church of the Virgin Mary in the Republic of Chuvashia, Russia, which was destroyed by fire on January 5th, 2012.
Information about the incident was disseminated on the official website of the Diocese of Cheboksary and Chuvash.
The video of the incident was also shared by Sergey Toldykin, a user of the social network VKontakte.
-
“Equality March” was held before Zelenskyy’s Presidency
The photo, which shows a group of people with the symbols of the LGBTQ + movement, was taken during the equality march held in Kyiv in 2017.
The event was attended by about 5,000 people and is considered to be the first large-scale pride in the history of Ukraine. The number of participants in the event is increasing from year to year. Despite the pandemic, the march in 2021 was attended by up to 7,000 people.
About Ermile Nemsadze
Ermile Nemsadze is a former military and an affiliate of the far-right group “The Georgian March,” infamous for blatant homophobia, hate speech and anti-Western narratives.
Namely, in March 2020, on behalf of the Georgian March, Nemsadze started operating a gym, which, in addition to providing physical training to young males, aimed at moulding their ideological viewpoints. Nemsadze labelled the gyms as shelters, where young men would “retain their conservative values and avoid the liberalist propaganda.” Noteworthy, some of the people “trained” in such facilities engaged in violence against journalists and activists on July 5th, 2021. In 2019, when Giorgi Gabunia, the anchor of Rustavi 2 TV has insulted President of Russia Vladimir Putin using swear words, Nemsadze started a live stream and called upon the president of Russia to send special division forces to Tbilisi and eliminate both Giorgi Gabunia and Nika Gvaramia, the then-Director of Rustavi 2.
For years, Nemsadze has been rather vocal about his pro-Russian sentiments. For instance, he appeared in a 2018 story of the mainstream Russian channel NTV, which asserted that the 2008 August War was initiated by the Georgian side.
Ermile Nemsadze was affiliated with the Facebook page “Azimuth.” The page was created on December 19th, 2017, and among other countries, was had an administrator from Russia; The page was later deleted. However, on February 1st, 2021, a new page with an identical visual was created. Azimuth frequently shared Nemsadze’s posts and regularly published posts about the Russian armament and the developments in the country, as well as the stories released by Russian propagandistic media outlets. The page tried to discredit the anti-occupation rally in Tbilisi and sought to incite hatred towards the LGBTQ+ community.
Disinformation spread by Nemsadze was fact-checked by “Myth Detector” in the past as well. For more, see our articles:
- Who Spreads an Altered Picture Depicting the Canadian Prime Minister?
- The leader of “Georgian Idea” disseminates a fake quote of George Soros
- A Georgian March Member Disseminates Disinformation About the U.S. Ambassador
- Fake Soros Quotes Actually Belong to Political Commentator of Pro-Kremlin Media Outlet
The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.
Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.
