As always since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Wednesday, marked by the announcement of the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists by Vladimir Putin, gave rise to false information mornings of real ones.
The fear of Russian citizens of being forcibly mobilized and having to go to war in Ukraine has thus inspired the publication, on social networks, of images that are completely out of context.
Traffic jams on the border between Russia and Finland
partly true
A video, in particular, was posted on Twitter on Wednesday shortly before 3 p.m. before being “retweeted” (that is to say, shared) more than 10,000 times and “liked” by nearly 25,000 Internet users, on the counters arrested Thursday morning.
We see a gigantic traffic jam, with dozens of cars stopped in single file.
#Breaking: just in - The traffic jam at the border with #Russia/#Finland has looted up to 35KM and is rising by the hour, it is the only border who is still open for Russian civilians with shengen visas, after #Putin announced he will send 300,000 new troops to #Ukraine.
pic.twitter.com/EOJ1346qDO
— Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) September 21, 2022
The Internet user behind the publication, who presents himself as an "independent journalist", writes that "the traffic jam at the border between Russia and Finland has accumulated up to 35 km and has lengthened from hour to hour”.
“This is the only border that is still open for Russian civilians with Schengen visas, after Putin announced that he would send 300,000 new soldiers to Ukraine,” he adds, implying that Russian citizens are fleeing their country en masse.
A few hours later, the Finnish border guards indicated on Twitter that "the situation at the borders of Finland has not changed with the announcement of the Russian mobilization".
"There are usual queues, with nothing to report at the moment," said their boss.
In addition, "videos are circulating on social networks" but "at least some of them have been filmed before and are now taken out of context", added the border guards.
Situation at Finland's borders has not changed with the announcement of Russian moilization.
There are videos circulating on social media, at least some of which have already been filmed before and now taken out of context.
There is incorrect information in circulation.
— Rajavartiolaitos (@rajavartijat) September 21, 2022
The video mentioned above is one of them.
We find it, in fact, published on YouTube on Monday, September 19, two days before Vladimir Putin's speech.
The account that shared it specifies that the images date from “a few weeks ago”, without further details.
On Wednesday, he made it clear in a "pinned" comment that these "were shot before any announcement".
Several clues already suggested that this video dated from this summer.
The vegetation is immaculate green, the trees do not seem to have lost their leaves yet, and some motorists or passengers are dressed in a simple T-shirt.
However, in several cities located near the border between Russia and Finland, the temperature did not exceed 12 ° C on Wednesday.
Other videos, very shared in particular this Thursday morning, show scenes of traffic jams supposedly filmed in recent hours on the border between Russia and Mongolia.
The location seems exact but it is not possible, at this time, to certify that they are also recent.
Massive plane leak
It is more complicated than that
In addition, many Internet users are relaying an animation from Flight Radar 24 showing all the flights that took off from Moscow or Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, in the hours following or preceding Vladimir Putin's martial declarations, speaking of a "leak or an "exile" of Russian citizens.
Flights departing Moscow and St. Petersburg today.
The @AP is reporting international flights departing Russia have either sold out or skyrocketed in price after Putin announced a mobilization of reservists.
Search SVO, VKO, DME for Moscow airports and LED for St. Petersburg.
pic.twitter.com/LV2PrkwPD9
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 21, 2022
Except that the number of flights is not really higher than a "normal" day, as Flight Radar clarified.
Several elements - not visible on such an animation - have however changed: reservations have skyrocketed and some flights were full when they would not necessarily have been in a "normal" context.