Russian fake: In Poltava, Santa Claus being imposed on children instead of Father Frost

As Christmas approaches, Russian propaganda takes up New Year's themes

Russian media outlets and z-Telegram channels are spreading a narrative about the alleged imposition of Western values in Ukraine, replacing Father Frost with Santa Claus.

As evidence, they use a photo allegedly taken in a kindergarten in Poltava. This photo shows a poster comparing the "always cheerful", pro-Western Santa Claus, who "travels on a magic sleigh with reindeer", and the "always sad" Father Frost, who is a "relic of the Soviet past" and "lives with his underage granddaughter", and offering children to choose between these characters in favor of Santa Claus.

This is a fake. Using the reverse image search tools on Google Lends, we found out that this picture was spread by Russian media outlets and Telegram channels, with the pro-Russian resource Ukraine.ru being the original source.

The poster itself was created using images that are easy to find on the Internet. The image of Father Frost was taken from a Russian website, while the image of Santa Claus was taken from a box of chocolate sweets.

It should also be noted that the poster's vocabulary, such as Father Frost "lives with his underage granddaughter" and Santa Claus "is closer to Western values," is not childish at all. Not to mention the fact that not all kindergarten children can read.

On the Internet, there are dozens of websites and ads where Father Frost and Snow Maiden can be invited for the holidays in Poltava.

This is not the first fake about New Year's holidays spread by Russian propaganda. Earlier, Ukrinform refuted the fake that in Vinnytsia, employees of a local military recruitment office invited children and their parents to New Year’s party where they allegedly planned to mobilize all adult men.

Andriy Olenin