Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
A content is published claiming that Sergei Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has reacted to the situation in Kosovo by saying that Russia as a friend of Serbia should not allow an aggressive government led by Albin Kurti. According to him, Prime Minister Albin Kurti's claim for 1 billion euros for armaments would shake the foundations of Serbia in the Balkans. Furthermore, Lavrov is said to have called for serious actions against Kosovo to protect the "purity" of Serbia.
Such a claim was published on April 26 by several Facebook pages, such as "World News","Press Release" and "Love Zero Six".
What is the truth?
Hibrid.info found that the alleged statement is not published in official and credible sources.
Hibrid.info initially checked whether such a statement had been made public on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but it was not found (see here).
Also, seeing that the photograph through which the claim is made shows the Russian minister from a meeting of the Security Council (SC) of the United Nations (UN), hibrid.info has researched the last meeting of this organization where Kosovo was discussed.
The latest one found is from April 8th of this year (see here). On behalf of the Russian Federation, the representative, Vasily Nebenzia, had discussed (see here).
Hibrid.info continued its search in Albanian using the search engine, "Google", to see if the alleged statement had been published in the media or in credible sources, but the search results did not show anything similar (see here).
The latest statements made by Lavrov, in relation to Kosovo, are those where he compares the case of Kosovo with that of Crimea, a statement which was dealt with by hibrid.info and based on the methodology, was assessed as untrue (see here).
Analyze:
The claim that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Russia must stop an aggressive government in Kosovo, citing Albin Kurti's promise of 1 billion euros in armaments investments and calling for serious action to protect the "purity" of Serbia, is incorrect.
Hibrid.info has not found such a statement published by credible sources.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses it as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The “Fake News” rating is given to informational content that is entirely fabricated or that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be defined as having been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.