An explosive claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suffered a heart attack spread across the globe this week, amplified by news outlets and social media users.
The news didn鈥檛 come from the Kremlin, which dismissed it as a 鈥渉oax,鈥 nor verified reporting in Russia. It came from a single anonymous account on the messaging service Telegram that provided no evidence, yet was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
Misinformation researchers warn the account isn鈥檛 credible and has spread baseless claims about Putin鈥檚 health in the past. But the case highlights the dangers of seeking information on the loosely moderated messaging platform that has surged in popularity amid .
Here is a closer look at the facts.
CLAIM: Russian President Vladimir Putin suffered a serious heart attack on Sunday and needed to be resuscitated.
THE FACTS: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called the claim 鈥渏ust another hoax,鈥 telling reporters that 鈥渆verything is fine.鈥
released by Russian media that day showed Putin at a meeting at the Kremlin. On Wednesday, on state television directing a simulated nuclear strike drill via video call.
The denial came after news of the supposed cardiac arrest was picked up earlier that day by multiple online and television news outlets around the world, including in Australia, the United Kingdom and India. It was also widely shared across social media.
The source of all of these reports was a popular Telegram account, General SVR, which claims to have insider information from the Kremlin. But misinformation researchers warn it鈥檚 not reliable.
鈥淚ts mocking and dismissive attitude toward the Kremlin also appeals to English-speaking audiences. Yet this channel lacks credibility, having made (most likely) false claims about Putin鈥檚 health before,鈥 Scott Radnitz, a professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington, told the AP in an email. 鈥淢any posts describe Putin鈥檚 body double giving speeches at international summits. And the late Yevgeny Prigozhin is supposedly alive and well in Venezuela.鈥
Indeed, in the post Monday, the account not only alleged that Putin was found in his bedroom on Sunday convulsing on the floor, it also claimed that a body double has recently been appearing in his place at all official meetings and events.
The Telegram post in Russian has nevertheless been viewed more than 400,000 times and has been forwarded to other channels around 22,000 times, from Telegram analysis tool TGStat. The also gained at least 5,000 subscribers between Monday and Tuesday.
The account did not return a request for comment this week. Experts say that while there has been much speculation about who runs the channel, its author remains anonymous.
This isn鈥檛 the first time the account鈥檚 dubious claims about Putin鈥檚 health have been believed by media outlets abroad, according to Jon Roozenbeek, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge whose research focuses on misinformation.
For example, the account, which has been around since 2020 and has more than 374,000 subscribers, posted a similar claim about Putin falling down stairs in December last year, which was also picked up by multiple tabloids at the time.
Telegram, already a popular messaging service in Eastern Europe, has become especially prominent in Russia amid the war in Ukraine because Western social media has been restricted and state media is not a reliable source of information, experts said.
鈥淭elegram has emerged as an important information battlefield following Russia鈥檚 re-invasion of Ukraine,鈥 said Eto Buziashvili, a research associate at the Atlantic Council鈥檚 Digital Forensic Research Lab who specializes in Russia and influence operations.
But the platform, which is only lightly moderated, of misinformation around the conflict. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.
Most Russians don鈥檛 necessarily rely on 鈥渟ensationalist鈥 channels like General SVR, Roozenbeek said. But the account鈥檚 content could be a blind spot for outside observers.
Experts noted that posts such as the one falsely suggesting a heart attack play into prior speculation and rumors around the 71-year-old Russian leader鈥檚 health, which have been spread by everyone from anonymous internet users to Russian intelligence services. A Telegram account that claims to offer access to secret, inside information could also be appealing to readers, Buziashvili said.
鈥淚t is simply one of those things that many Western observers, including journalists, kind of want to be true (because of their justifiable opposition to the war and dislike of Putin), and so we sometimes become a bit careless,鈥 Roozenbeek wrote.
鈥淵ou see the same with outrageous stories about Kim Jong-un,鈥 he added, referring to the North Korean leader.
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This is part of AP鈥檚 effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. .
