On October 16-17, 2023, Russian language media,a s well as Russian-speaking Facebook accounts (1, 2) published a cover page of the Turkish satirical magazine, LeMan. The cover depicts Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy being angry over the journalists, who are covering the Israel-Hamas war. To the left below of the cover, description says: DİKKATİNİ KENDİSİNE GERİ KAZANMAK İÇİN, NELERİ O YAPMAĞA HAZIR?. [“What lengths is he willing to go to get attention back to himself?”]
The cover circulating under the name LeMan is fabricated. A similar caricature was not published on the publication’s official website and social networks. The fact that the cover is fake was confirmed by LeMan itself.
The last issue of the magazine (2023/40) was published on October 18, and neither the latest nor the previous issues have the caricature depicting Zelenskyy angry over the journalists.
The fact that the disseminated cover is fabricated was also confirmed by LeMan itself on Twitter on October 16.
Photos of fabricated covers of the Turkish satirical magazine LeMan and other foreign publications have been published many times in the past:
- FABRICATED CARICATURE ON THE NAME OF LEMAN AT THE DEMONSTRATION IN BATUM
- FABRICATED CARICATURES ON THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE ON BEHALF OF WESTERN PUBLICATIONS DISTRIBUTED AFTER THE NATO SUMMIT
- FABRICATED CARICATURE ABOUT ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE DISSEMINATED IN THE NAME OF COURRIER INTERNATIONAL
- FABRICATED COVERS DISSEMINATED IN THE NAME OF POLISH AND GERMAN OUTLETS
- HOW DOES KREMLIN PROPAGANDA FABRICATE THE COVERS OF WESTERN OUTLETS TO DISCREDIT UKRAINE?
Nataliia Matvieieva
Myth Detector Laboratory
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