Did Vladimir Putin make fun of the French presidential candidates? No, it’s a parody

Published on: 04/15/2022 – 13:48 The video, which purports to show Russian President Vladimir Putin commenting on the French presidential election, stating in particular that the “French are good at electing badgers” and that Emmanuel Macron “will pretending to be Napoleon for five years”, is a parody that has been circulating on social networks for more than a month. The author added fake French subtitles to the video of a speech by the Russian president at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2019. The verification in brief The video of a speech by the Russian president claims that he mocks and insults French voters and candidates for the 2022 French presidential election. A keyword search finds the original footage and finds that the subtitles on the circulating video have nothing to do with what Vladimir Putin says. It was filmed in Saint Petersburg in 2019. Vladimir Putin was talking about Volodymyr Zelensky then and in no way about the French presidential election. Checking in detail “What Putin thinks of the French elections”, claims the caption of a video shared on Facebook on March 1, and viewed by more than four million people. Since then, in the midst of an electoral context, the video reappears regularly on the social network, as on this publication of March 6, this one of April 9 or this one of April 11. Many Internet users write in the comments that it is is a parody. But some took it literally. It was notably reported to us via the Observers email address. The three-minute video shows the Russian president at what looks like a conference. He is questioned by a journalist in Russian. According to the subtitles, she would ask: “What do you think of the French presidential elections?” Vladimir Putin would then answer, according to the subtitles: “the French are very good at electing badgers”.Always according to the subtitles, Vladimir Putin would also criticize Emmanuel Macron: “This guy is not serious (…) He will take himself for Napoleon for five years”, he would be supposed to say at the end of the video. Vladimir Putin’s interview is interspersed with ‘images showing the laughter of the public. A sequence shot in 2019 of the International Economic Forum of Saint-Petersburg… Several details strongly challenge: the level of language used by the Russian president, who, according to the subtitles, makes fun of several politicians with colloquial, even insulting expressions. ” (“St. Petersburg International Economic Forum”). By performing a search using these keywords on Google, one can find a full video of this annual economic event, which was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on June 7 2019, in the presence of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and other heads of state, on the Facebook page of the 2019 forum. The video has an English dubbing. In the original video, at 2:50, you can find the footage that was hijacked.Vladimir Putin was actually talking about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky….where Vladimir Putin is actually talking about Volodymyr ZelenskyThe journalist, instead of asking him about the French elections as the false sub- titles, asks him: “Didn’t you congratulate Volodymyr Zelensky when he became president?” Vladimir Putin then replies: “Well, he has stuck to the same rhetoric until now, calling us enemies and aggressors. So he has to somehow make up his mind about what he wants to achieve and what he wants to do. We do not renounce any contact with him. We will work with him.” The next part of the original video, where Vladimir Putin says he hopes to meet the Ukrainian president, and claims that being an actor requires talent, was cut from the satirical video. The satirical video picks up the continuation of the answer of the Russian president, where he says that if being an actor requires talent, managing a state requires others. He adds that Volodymyr Zelensky can learn these qualities. This part has been replaced in the satirical video by pennies -titles, suggesting that Vladimir Putin is making fun of several French personalities, and that he is encouraging the French to “vote left”. The English transcript of the entire event is available on the Russian Presidency website .The video therefore has nothing to do with the French presidential election of 2022.