A celebrity from French-speaking Switzerland shares fake news about Zelensky’s wife: ‘Hesitation Wound’ wins Golden Eye at the Zurich Film Festival

Olena Selenska spent $1.1 million on jewelry at a Cartier boutique in New York. At the same time, her husband, the Ukrainian president, spoke at the United Nations about Ukraine’s plight. How should we understand that? That the Zelenskys do not care about the suffering of their people, and worse, that they are war profiteers.

They’re not worth them, right? But the story is not true. It is true that the Zelensky couple traveled to the 78th UN General Assembly in New York in mid-September and the Ukrainian president spoke on this occasion. But the “information” that his wife took out his fat wallet to enjoy herself in a Cartier boutique is fake.

How the machine started

This is evident from BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, who specializes in debunking conspiracy theories and fake news. In a thread posted to his X account on Friday, October 6, Shayan Sardarizadeh investigates the source of this now viral fake. 👇

It all starts on September 30th. In a video on an obscure YouTube channel, a young woman who claims to be a former Cartier employee and who also has a very mysterious Instagram account called @gorgeous.bb.jeanette claims two things:

The problem is, as Shayan Sardarizadeh points out, that the Zelenskyj couple were no longer in New York on September 22, but in the Canadian capital Ottawa.

Pro-Russian Nigerian site

Everything “smacks” of disinformation in this video, which appeared out of nowhere – and everyone could see it for themselves. How could it have been possible that the visit of the Ukrainian president’s wife to a Cartier boutique went unnoticed, especially in New York, where the media is everywhere?, the BBC journalist wondered, for example.

Despite the obvious inaccuracy of the editing, it caused a snowball effect. On October 2, it was published as sponsored content on The Nation, a Nigerian website “widely shared by pro-Kremlin people,” as Shayan Sardarizadeh notes.

Adapted from the French-speaking Swiss writer Slobodan Despot

The fake “is going viral on Telegram, Twitter, TikTok and other platforms,” as the investigative journalist notes. The Russian embassy in Britain spread the word on its Twitter account. In Switzerland, the writer and polemicist Slobodan Despot, who is well known to listeners of the Sunday program ‘Les beaux parleurs’ on RTS, took over the fake from a pro-Russian account and also shared it on his X-Feed on October 4. this comment:

“Goodfellas”, in German “Goodfellas – Three Decades in the Mafia”, is set in the New York mafia environment. 👇

Slobodan Despot was warned by a user about his misunderstanding and corrected it the next day in another tweet full of sarcasm:

Monumental misstep exploited by the Kremlin

On September 22, the date on the (false) invoice attributed to Olena Selenska, the Zelensky couple are in Ottawa. Accompanied by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Ukrainian president will be received by the Canadian parliament. There, Canadian authorities made a terrible blunder when they allowed a Ukrainian veteran, proven to have fought with the Nazis in the Waffen-SS, to be feted with a standing ovation by parliamentarians in the presence of the Jewish Volodymyr Zelensky. . A misstep that was immediately exploited by the Kremlin.

Websites dedicated to clarifying conspiracy theories attribute Slobodan Despot and his anti-press media to the anti-vaccine bubble and support for Russia. The person concerned pushes the criticism aside and says he is “clear-minded”.

“A totalitarian system for manipulating the masses”

Slobodan Despot contacted Watson and explained his first tweet about Olena Zelenska: “It was likely that she might want to invest money in buying jewelry.” On Ottawa’s misstep: ‘Canadian authorities should have known the full biography of the Ukrainian veteran. This is inexcusable.” In his second tweet, however, Slobodan Despot does not discuss this aspect of the case. However, he does not rule out that “Ms. Selenska” knowingly greeted the former Ukrainian SS man with applause. This can of course be considered a innuendo are taken.

Regarding the war in Ukraine, Slobodan Despot argues that “we in the West have set up a totalitarian system to manipulate the masses.”

“Tapping into the imagination of suspicion”

Frenchman Tristan Mendès-France, specialist in the fight against conspiracy theories, analyzes the effect sought by fake news to endanger Olena Selenska and, through her, her husband.

The ground for the disinformation was prepared in advance mainly by Russia. This ground means that this type of fake news will soon acquire the status of real information, which will then have to be cleaned up, says Mendès-France. For the sake of common sense, everyone should admit the lie about the “jewelry affair.” But since it seems ‘plausible’ to some, i.e. within the range of possibilities, it is as if it were true.