Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has published a post/tweet on Twitter claiming that a large portion of Stinger and Javeline anti-tank weapons from Ukraine are being smuggled onto the black market in Kosovo and Albania.
The Russian Foreign Minister made this claim without basing it on facts. This post was made yesterday (June 22) on the official Twitter page of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Link to the Russian Foreign Ministry post/tweet:
Tweet translated into Albanian:
It would be a good idea to find out exactly where the weapons now available in Ukraine – Stingers & Javelins – have gone. They are on the black market. Some have appeared in Albania and Kosovo. The weapons are being resold at a discount. The black market is growing.
Lavrov made this statement during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, held from June 15 to 18 this year (here).
Analyze:
This claim, by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, is not supported by any facts. Hibrid.info has found Lavrov's full statement related to this claim, in which it can be seen that he, apart from the posted part, has not provided any additional details to support the claim made.
So, there is no narrative or visual evidence to support the claim that these weapons are being sold on the black market in Kosovo and Albania.
For this reason, hibrid.info considers this claim by Lavrov as "fake news".
Reasoning:
The "Fake News" rating is given to media reports that are entirely the product of a medium that itself contains factually incorrect claims or information.
Content that is considered fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.