Claim: Putin said Russia would support Iran if the US attacked
An April 13 Facebook post (direct link, archived link) shows a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin shaking hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a screenshot of a social media post. .
“Breaking news: Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Russia will support Iran if the United States supports Israel and attacks mainland Iran,” said commentator Jackson, who previously promoted pro-Russian causes. Hinkle’s post on X (formerly Twitter) reads: View.
The Facebook post was shared more than 400 times in one week. A similar version on Instagram garnered thousands of likes before being removed.
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Our rating: False
According to several experts, President Putin never said that. The post was shared three days before his first public comment on the attack. In Putin’s comments, he did not mention supporting Iran against retaliation from the United States.
“The bottom line is that President Putin didn’t say that.”
X-Post reported that Iran launched an attack against Israel on April 13, including a wave of drones and missiles, and that on April 1, seven Iranian military officers were involved in a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Syria. This was done in response to the death of a person. A coalition of fighter jets and naval assets led the attack and intercepted numerous drones and missiles.
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However, that claim is false. Multiple experts told USA TODAY that President Putin did not commit to Russian support for Iran if the United States retaliated against the Iranian attack.
“The bottom line is that Putin never said that,” said Nicole Grajewski, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who studies Russia and Iran.
The intelligence team at Nisos, a company that monitors online misinformation, also found no evidence to support this claim. A declaration of such nature by President Putin would have had a huge impact worldwide and would have been reported in many media outlets, but the legitimate media did not report it. Russian state media also did not mention the matter, but a report on the claims prepared by Nisos researchers for USA TODAY says that the media “always promptly reported on President Putin’s statements.” “I’m doing it.”
Kyle Walter, director of research at Logical, a disinformation monitoring technology company, also told USA TODAY that there is “nothing to suggest that President Putin made this claim.”
The claim appears to have originated from a pro-Iran account on Telegram on April 13, and then spread to X, Grajewski said.
“It is not unusual for the Iranian Telegram channel to fabricate articles about countries’ support for Iran,” she said.
To date, Putin’s only public comment on the attack came three days after he read out his April 16 phone conversation with Raisi, which sparked the X post.
According to a Kremlin account of the conversation, Putin called for “wise restraint” and the prevention of “new conflicts that could have dire consequences for the entire region.” Iran’s version of the reading differs in that Putin characterizes the attack as the best way to punish Israel, according to Iranian state media reports.
“This is typical of Iran’s tendency to exaggerate bilateral relations,” Grajewski said.
But neither version included any mention of Russia’s support for Iran if the United States retaliated. It was not mentioned in the Russian Foreign Ministry statement.
Iran’s attack on Israel has been the subject of significant misinformation on social media. USA TODAY debunked false claims that Iranian rockets did not hit Israel and, by contrast, that Israel’s Nevatim Air Base was “completely destroyed” in the attack.
USA TODAY reached out to Hinkle and the Facebook and Instagram users who shared the post, but did not immediately receive a response.
Reed Stories also debunked this claim.
Our fact-checking sources:
- Nicole Grajewski, April 19, email exchange with USA TODAY
- Kyle Walter, April 19, email exchange with USA TODAY
- Nisos, April 19, Putin Iran USA TODAY Report
- Russian President, April 16th, telephone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, April 14, Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement regarding attacks on Israeli territory
- Reuters, April 16, President Putin tells Middle East to withdraw from devastating conflict
- Islamic Republic News Agency, April 16, Russian president praises Iran’s response to Zionist aggression
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