In November 2023, Georgian-language accounts (1, 2, 3.) and Russian-language pages (1, 2.) published information about the alleged opening of the first Mercedes factory in Russia. The posts create the impression that the Mercedes factory in Russia was opened despite the sanctions imposed on Russia. Most of the posts are accompanied by a video showing footage of the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, welcoming/opening the factory.
The disseminated posts are misleading and create the false impression that the Mercedes factory in Russia has just opened. In fact, the video and information dates back to 2019.
The first and currently only Mercedes factory in Russia was opened in April 2019, based on the agreement signed in 2017. The factory was opened in the small town of Esipovo, 40 kilometers from Moscow, and Vladimir Putin was also present at the opening ceremony.
The mentioned factory was the first to be opened in the country for several years, because due to the sanctions imposed by the West and the stagnation of the automobile business sector starting in 2012, manufacturers refrained from starting/expanding their activities in Russia.
No information about the opening of the Mercedes plant in Russia this year can be found in open sources, including the Russian media. Additionally, the video footage shared on Facebook is identical to the footage shared by various sources on April 3, 2019.
| Shot from the 2019 video | Shot from the video disseminated on Facebook |
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Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more than a thousand Western companies left the Russian market. Among them was Mercedes, which started this process in 2022 and finally completed it in April 2023. The company sold its Russian assets, including the said factory, to the Russian company Autodom, which plans to relaunch the plant.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, manipulative and false claims that Western companies continue to cooperate with Russia in the same way as they did before the war have been periodically resurfacing on social media. Read more in Myth Detector articles:
- STATISTICAL INFORMATION ON EU TRADE WITH RUSSIA IS SPREAD IN A MANIPULATIVE MANNER (in Georgian)
- GEORGIAN MP GIA VOLSKI VOICES DISINFORMATION ABOUT RUSSIA-EU TRADE
- DID 1000+ BIG COMPANIES BREAK THEIR PROMISE TO STOP DOING BUSINESS IN RUSSIA?
About the Sources
Khundadze Nini is one of 5 profiles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) of Nini Khundadze, a supporter of the conservative movement and its affiliate Alt-Info TV. The account often publishes anti-Western content. “Myth Detector” has debunked the false information spread by the user many times in the past.
The Facebook account “Shako Kerelashvili” regularly publishes information of anti-Western and homophobic content. The posts shared by the user have been labeled as false information by various fact-checking organizations, including Myth Detector.
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