The head of russia’s state duma publicly reports fake news to putin
The head of the russian state duma, vyacheslav volodin, reported a fake satirical story to russian dictator vladimir putin — a fabricated news piece about an artificial intelligence system allegedly appointed as a minister in Albania and then caught taking a bribe.
▫️This happened during a public, on-camera meeting between the duma speaker and putin. volodin repeated the story with full seriousness as an argument for why the state duma must regulate the use of AI. He also claimed the incident happened in an EU country — even though Albania is not a member of the European Union.
Albania does indeed use an AI system called “Diella” in the field of public procurement, but the corruption story is entirely fictional. It was originally published by the Croatian satirical fake-news website NEWSBAR.
This episode is yet another vivid example of the competence level of officials in putin’s inner circle and the widespread practice of supplying russia’s dictator with unreliable information. As a result, fake news and disinformation form a constant information background within russia’s top leadership. In russia, falsehoods are actively spread not only by propagandists but also by senior government officials — including putin himself.
