Russia’s propaganda machine periodically disseminates fake French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo magazine covers, to buttress the disinformation narrative the Kremlin in currently pushing. Whatever Russian media and its acolytes claim, there is no Charlie Hebo cover dedicated to Ukrainian Fencer Olha Kharlan.
Russian media, and Russian social media accounts are abuzz with fakes this week, claiming that the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo satirizes the recent situation at the World Fencing Championships in Milan. Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan was disqualified after she refused to shake hands with her Russian opponent whom she had just beaten. Russian media claims that for this, Charlie Hebdo had ridiculed the Ukrainian champion on its latest cover.
This claim, as well as the alleged cover featured in the Russian story, is simply another Russian propaganda fake. The official Charlie Hebdo website features all of the magazine’s previous covers and issues. According to the archive, there is no such cover. The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on the other hand, is quite often ridiculed by the magazine, but the Russian media do not pay any attention to such satire. The fake cover is also not to be found on any of Charlie Hebdo’s social media accounts.
Olga Kharlan defeated her Russian opponent Anna Smirnova at the start of the 2023 Fencing World Championship, which was held in Milan. After the match, Harlan refused to shake hands with Smirnova, holding a saber in front of her, and was disqualified for doing so. The disqualification decision was later rescinded, and the head of the International Olympic Committee said that Kharlan would be allowed to compete at the next Olympics. Kharlan’s refusal to shake hands with the Russian fencer caused a flurry of negative reactions in the Russian media, as well as a wave of fakes on this topic.
