A photo shows an explosion at an oil refinery or airport in Russia behind a billboard featuring President Putin and promoting ‘stability’.
This is not a real photo. It is a piece of digital artwork created using Photoshop and AI tools, and was first shared by a Ukrainian artist in January.
A piece of digital artwork showing a billboard featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin against a backdrop of flames and smoke has been circulating online with some suggesting it’s a genuine photo of scenes in Russia.
The image shows a large billboard with a headshot of President Putin alongside the Russian word for ‘stability’ (translated by Google). The billboard appears to be damaged, with a hole in it, and behind it, large flames and a column of smoke are visible amongst electrical wires and pylons.
The photo has been shared on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook in recent days with captions such as “Good morning, Russia. Another oil refinery having a tragic industrial accident” and “More hits in russia …including Domodedovo Airport in Moscow”.
This comes after reports from the Russian defence ministry that an oil refinery caught fire after 35 Ukrainian drones attacked the country on the final day of Russia’s March 2024 presidential election.
However, this is not a genuine photo—it is a piece of digital artwork created using Photoshop and artificial intelligence (AI).
An un-cropped version of the image was originally shared to Telegram on 22 January. It was shared on a channel named “@khersondesigner” with a description written in Ukrainian saying “Kherson designer’s blog. I publish my works” (translated by Google). Kherson is a southern city in Ukraine which was occupied by Russia at the start of the war, but is now back in Ukrainian hands.
The Telegram user confirmed to Full Fact that the image was created using a combination of Photoshop and AI tools. They said: "This is my vision of the situation in Russia. The idea was to combine attacks on oil depots and the election of the Russian President”.
An X account with the same name and profile picture commented on a post of the image saying: “90% of the images are processed by Photoshop”.
The image was reposted on the Telegram channel on 18 March with the caption: “Who would have thought that this picture would become popular all over the world (Journalists from abroad write and ask ‘Is this a real photo or a processed image?’)
“Unfortunately, the picture became popular without specifying the author, and people really think that it is a photo” (translated by Google).
This is not the first time Full Fact has written about content created using artificial intelligence that has been shared as if it’s genuine, or mistaken for real images. You can read more about how to identify AI-generated images and videos in our guides.
According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, President Putin secured more than 87% of the recent vote, claiming his fifth term as president. While three other candidates ran against Putin, there were reportedly no credible opposition candidates and a number of opposition hopefuls were barred from running.
You can also find more of our work countering misinformation relating to the war in Ukraine on our website.
Image courtesy of kremlin.ru
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as altered because this is a piece of digital artwork, not a genuine photo of scenes in Russia.
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