The Russian television channel Zvezda posted a false news item claiming that the American business magazine Forbes had revised its editorial position on the issue of Crimea’s annexation and the peninsula’s status, now taking a more pro-Russian position.
With some variations, similar articles were also posted by Pravda.ru and Gosnovosti.
None of the websites that posted this information, however, gave links to their sources.
In March 2015 Forbes did in fact publish an opinion piece by Kenneth Rapoza, which supported Russia’s position on Crimea.But this in no way represented the position of the editorial board of Forbes, which solidly backs the Ukrainian status of Crimea and rejected the pseudo-referendum held in 2014.
The Zvezda article also falsely claims that “almost all main Ukrainian media absolutely ignored the results of the survey carried out by well-known GFK and Gallup showing popular support for Russia’s annexation among the inhabitants of Crimea.”
This too is not true. Ukraine’s largest media outlets – including Weekly Mirror, Korrespondent, Krym.Realii, Insider, and many others – have regularly reported on the this survey.
