The information portal "Kosovapost.net" published an article yesterday (June 19) claiming that "Russian criminal groups 'invade' the north."
After fact-checking conducted by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that this portal made this claim based on a photograph showing three people walking on the street, which according to the author was taken in northern Kosovo.
However, the content of the article does not provide additional data or facts that support the claim made.
Link to the article published on the portal "Kosovapost.net":
Excerpt from the article published on the portal "Kosovapost.net":
As the situation escalates, as part of its hybrid war, Serbia is increasingly recruiting criminal groups from Russia and other satellite countries.
One such group, which is believed to have come to the aid of Serbian criminal groups in destabilizing agendas, was seen today in the northern part of the Republic of Kosovo.
According to witnesses, the people in question, even though they came through the Belgrade line, were heard speaking in Russian.
In addition to the photograph, the aforementioned portal tries to substantiate this claim with the fact that the people shown in the image were heard speaking Russian.
However, the claim that these individuals were heard speaking Russian does not prove that they are part of Russian criminal groups.
Analyze:
Based on the verification of the facts, it has been confirmed that the article published by "Kosovapost.net" does not provide additional facts or data that substantiate the claim that "Russian criminal groups 'invade' the north".
Based on just one photograph, and the claim that the people in the image were heard speaking Russian, this does not make them part of Russian criminal groups. This article has been rated as "Unverified Content".
Reasoning:
The “Unverified” rating is given to those media reports that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which have not been able to confirm the same due to the lack or non-possession of reliable sources.