Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
"Millions of euros of investment for the Kosovo Army: The purchase of 300 transporters and 100 tanks is planned," reads the caption of a video.
This content was published yesterday (August 25) by the account "viktorks112" on TikTok.
The truth?
After research conducted through online search engines, hibrid.info has found that this article is old, published on October 30, 2018 by the Serbian-language media outlet "Informer.rs". The article is not based on any facts.
Link to content published on TikTok by the account "viktorks112":
Excerpt from an article published in 2018 by the Serbian online medium "Informer.rs":
The United States has allowed Kosovo Albanians to build an army and buy weapons for 300 million euros.
In the next three years, authorities in Pristina, the headquarters of the self-proclaimed "Republic of Kosovo", will purchase weapons worth 300 million euros for their army.
Recall that the price of used tanks and armored personnel carriers ranges from half a million to three million dollars. At the same time, anti-tank weapons and other military equipment are much cheaper and can be purchased at a bargain price from former Soviet republics, but also from NATO countries that want to get rid of weapons whose resources are running out, or are simply obsolete. (see here)
During the research, hibrid.info found that the 2018 article published by the Serbian-language media outlet "Informer.rs" was also distributed in several online media outlets in Kosovo.
Portals such as "Ballkani.info" and "Botasot.info" published this article on August 28 and 29, 2021. (see here). The article from “Botasot.info” appears to have been deleted. (see here)
Hibrid.info also addressed the same claim in 2022. At that time, the dubious portal “albasky.com” had published the same article referring to the Serbian-language medium “Informer.rs”. (see here)
Analyze:
The claim that Kosovo plans to purchase 300 transporters and 100 tanks is false.
This claim was made through a video posted on the social media TikTok.
After research conducted by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that this claim was made in 2018 by the Serbian-language media outlet "Informer.rs", without being based on any facts.
Such a claim was also published in 2022 by a dubious portal with content in Albanian, which was also addressed by hibrid.info at that time.
This re-publication of this false claim, according to the working methodology of hibrid.info, is assessed as "Broadcasting of fake news".
Reasoning:
This rating is given to media reports that broadcast original content from another media outlet that contains fake news. The rating is only given for broadcasting content that is categorized as fake news.