The claim came from an Italian website known for publishing Russian disinformation – according to the Italian land registry, the villa in Tuscany still belongs to Sting.
Reports are rapidly spreading online that Volodymyr Zelensky has purchased a Tuscan winery from singer Sting (real name: Gordon Sumner). The property was allegedly purchased for 75 million euros, according to a “contract” that propagandists are citing as evidence. The original source of this news is the Italian website databaseitalia.it, from where it has spread across the Internet in several languages. Fake stories about the “extravagant spending” of the Ukrainian president and his entourage often gain traction far beyond Russia – for more on such disinformation campaigns, see the analysis Zelensky and his wife spending Western money on luxury goods or squandering war resources: the cross-border disinformation campaigns circulating from Georgia to Argentina.
However, this story is yet another Russian propaganda fabrication. First, Database Italia is far from a credible source; it frequently publishes fakes and conspiracy theories about global warming, COVID-19 vaccination, U.S. biolabs in Ukraine, and the illegal sale of organs from Ukrainian orphans. Second, Georgian fact-checkers from Myth Detector highlighted the falsehood by verifying through the Italian land registry that the Tuscan property Tenuta il Palagio remains owned by Gordon Sumner as of August 2024.
In addition, the estate’s management has not responded to inquiries at the time of this publication. However, recent posts on the winery’s Facebook page confirm that Sting and his wife are still the owners of Tenuta il Palagio – just two days ago, the winery’s official page posted a photo of the singer and identified him as the villa’s owner.
For more on another fabricated story aimed at discrediting Ukraine’s president, see Fake: The President’s Office Planned a Staged Attempt to Assassinate Zelensky’s Children, but the CIA Rejected the Plan.
