Putin didn't pledge Russian support for Iran if US retaliates for attack on Israel | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·4 min read
38

The claim: Putin said Russia will support Iran if attacked by US

An April 13 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin shaking hands with Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, in a screenshot of a social media post.

“BREAKING: Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that RUSSIA will SUPPORT IRAN if the United States attacks Iran's soil in support of Israel,” reads text in a post on X, formerly Twitter, by commentator Jackson Hinkle, who has previously promoted pro-Russian views.

The Facebook post was shared more than 400 times in a week. A similar version on Instagram received thousands of likes before it was deleted.

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Our rating: False

Putin didn’t say that, according to multiple experts. The post was shared three days before his first public comments on the attack. Putin made no mention in his comments of supporting Iran against retaliation from the U.S.

'In short, Putin never said that'

The X post followed the attack Iran launched April 13 against Israel that included a wave of drones and missiles and came after a suspected Israeli airstrike against Iran’s embassy in Syria killed seven Iranian military officers on April 1. Israel's air defense systems, along with a U.S.-led coalition of warplanes and naval assets, intercepted many of the drones and missiles.

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But the claim is false. Putin did not pledge Russian support for Iran if the U.S. retaliates for that attack, multiple experts told USA TODAY.

“In short, Putin never said that,” said Nicole Grajewski, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who researches Russia and Iran.

The intelligence team at Nisos, a firm that monitors online disinformation, also found no evidence to support the claim. A declaration of that nature from Putin would carry massive global implications and would have received significant media coverage, but no legitimate media outlets reported on it. Nor was it mentioned in Russian state media – which “always report Putin statements promptly," according to a report about the claim produced by Nisos researchers for USA TODAY.

Kyle Walter, the head of investigative research at the disinformation-monitoring tech firm Logically, also told USA TODAY there is “nothing suggesting Putin ever made the claim.”

The claim appeared to originate April 13 from pro-Iranian accounts on Telegram before spreading to X, Grajewski said.

“It isn’t atypical for Iranian Telegram channels to make up stories about countries’ support for Iran,” she said.

Putin’s only public comments about the attack to date came three days after the X post originated in the readout of an April 16 phone conversation with Raisi.

Putin called for “sensible restraint” and the prevention of “a new round of confrontation that may be fraught with disastrous consequences for the entire region,” according to the Kremlin’s account of the conversation. The Iranian version of the readout differed by stating Putin characterized the strike as the best way to punish Israel, according to a report from Iran state media.

“This is typical of Iran, which tends to overstate the bilateral relationship,” Grajewski said.

But neither version included any mention of Russian support for Iran in the event the U.S. retaliates. Nor was it mentioned in a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Iran’s attack on Israel has been the subject of significant misinformation on social media. USA TODAY has debunked false claims that none of Iran’s rockets struck Israel and, at the other extreme, 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 any responses.

Lead Stories also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Putin didn't say Russia would support Iran against US | Fact check

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