Euroradio debunks Russian director over Belarus protests CGI claims

Screenshot from BesogonTV show and the original image
Screenshot from BesogonTV show and the original image

On September 12, the popular Russian Youtube channel "BesogonTV" (788 thousand subscribers) aired the program Anthology of Falsehood, partly dedicated to the Belarusian protests. The host of the program, film director Nikita Mikhalkov, claims that the number of protesters in Belarus is overstated using CGI.

The screen (timing 22:58) shows an image with the logo of the TG-channel as proof of how the Telegram audience is being fooled. Mikhalkov claims that there are many more protesters on Independence Square.

This photo is clearly photoshopped. Look, for example, at the fragments that are repeated in the upper area, circled in red:

Фактчэк: Як "БесогонTV" Міхалкова скарміў гледачам фэйк пра беларускія пратэсты
Screenshot from the program "Anthology of Falsehood"

But the fact is that N. has never published the photo that BesogonTV shows. This is what the original photo, taken in Independence Square on August 16, and published on the same day, looks like:

Фактчэк: Як "БесогонTV" Міхалкова скарміў гледачам фэйк пра беларускія пратэсты
Original image

The post-truth world is like that. BesogonTV, trying to prove that the information in TG channels cannot be trusted, feeds its viewers a fake photo, allegedly published in these very TG channels. Euroradio believes that the image with undisguised photoshop features could have been created specifically for the program. The gullible viewer will not check anything but will remain impressed with how shamelessly the participants of the Belarusian protests are being manipulated. And, in fact, they manipulate him -- the BesogonTV viewer.

“This is a double fake," Mikhalkov concludes. "It did great! Go on, people will buy it!"

It is difficult to disagree with the master. At the moment, the "Anthology of Falsehood" has been viewed almost 1 million times. And pieces devoted to the Belarusian protests were widely distributed on the pro-Kremlin TG channels.