Russia propaganda continues to spread fake photos with German tractors
Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik, targeting a foreign audience, on its page on social media platform X distributed a photo of a tractor to which the poster is allegedly attached, reading "Heute Panzer. Morgen Flugzeuge. Übermorgen unsere Söhne" ("Today tanks. Tomorrow planes. The day after tomorrow our sons"). The caption to the photo states that in this way German farmers are protesting against "Germany's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine."
The photo is fake. This tractor took part in the German farmers' protest on January 8, 2024. The photo published by the propagandists was taken in Berlin during farmers' protests, but the poster referred to in the post was not on the tractor.
We could not find the original photo that the propagandists used as the basis for their fake, but using a reverse image search tool, we found at least two pictures of the same tractor and two videos. There is no fake poster on any of them.
In other pictures, we see the same red tractor, which has the number 175, stickers with a traffic light - a symbol of protest - a blue and white bio-toilet behind the cab and a banner on the bucket with the inscription "Beiß nie die Hand die dich füttert," which translates as "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" (this is a German proverb).
The photo of this tractor has gone viral, but the photo with the new poster appeared only on March 5, 2024 in the social network of the Russian media outlet, almost two months after the protest.
It is worth noting that other photos of this tractor were used by propagandists from Russia Today to illustrate farmers' protests in Romania.
In addition, German farmers protested on January 8 against the abolition of diesel fuel subsidies for agricultural producers and did not put forward any political demands, including the termination of military aid to Ukraine.
This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has tried to use the protests of farmers in Germany to create fakes.
Andriy Olenin, Olha Tanasiichuk
