The Russian mass media publish news with headlines from which it follows that "Putin's ideas" are becoming increasingly popular in the West. Moreover, they cite Putin's words from September 30, in which he talked about the "breakdown of Western hegemony" and "the inadmissibility of the third sex."

In fact, as StopFake pointed out, the Russian news regarding the article in The Washington Post titled "Leaders of democracies increasingly follow Putin in gravitating toward authoritarianism." So the article, of course, is not about Putin's crazy ideas about the "third sex," which are becoming increasingly popular in the West. The article states that rapid changes, social stratification, and new technologies have made the world so complex that people look for simple answers. First, they listen to the opinions of right-wing populist, authoritarian leaders who pretend to be "strong and tough guys." The article mentions Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, among others. The analytical article points out that a new wave of right-wing populists came to power, taking advantage of the difficult economic situation which Putin himself arranged. Instead, it isn't about Putin's fabrications regarding historical "claims" and "geopolitical calculations."

This information was spread by Russian publications concerning the American magazine Newsweek. Allegedly, the military doesn`t agree with US President Joe Biden on deterring Russia exclusively by non-nuclear means. He said that the American military believed that it would be necessary to "hit the Russians with a hammer" and prepare "a blow to kill Putin in the heart of the Kremlin."

Russian propagandists took the quotes out of context. In fact, the Newsweek article said that “Biden believes non-nuclear threats will stop Putin. His military doesn't think so." It refers to a disagreement over the role of American nuclear weapons and the most effective way to deter Vladimir Putin. The article points out that Washington "told the Russians at a very high level that there would be catastrophic consequences for Russia if they used nuclear weapons in Ukraine."

Moreover, their unprecedented threats are just a reaction to Putin's equally unprecedented speech about a nuclear strike. Russian propagandists spread the thesis that the USA is preparing a nuclear attack on Russia and the assassination of Putin to justify any decisions of Putin and the crimes of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine, allegedly for protection. More details.

Russian telegram channels, in particular "voyenkory", as well as a network of telegram channels controlled by Russian intelligence, spread dozens of messages about the use or preparation for the use of the "newest laser complex - Peresvit".

The messages scared the readers of the unknown but catastrophic consequences of the use of weapons, while the "voyenkory" rejoiced and waited for rehabilitation after the defeats in the Kharkiv, Kherson, and Luhansk regions. And they spread photos of light poles shining into the sky - both in Belgorod and in other cities of Russia, for example, Moscow. Some media even described how the laser complex "blinded the NATO satellites" and stopped working.

However the propagandists spread a fake: in the photos taken in the cities of Russia, one of the most common types of the halo is a light pole. It is a natural atmospheric phenomenon that occurs when light reflects off microscopic ice crystals in the air, mostly from the Sun and Moon. Halos come in almost any shape, with nearly a hundred varieties recorded, but the most common is the circle around the Moon and the pillars of light at sunset. Moreover, pillars can arise from other light sources, for example, powerful lighting devices.

Little else is known about the Russian "newest laser complex". Putin announced its appearance in 2018, and hypothetically this complex should interfere with the operation of satellites functioning at an altitude of up to 1.5 thousand kilometers, but there is no reliable data on the testing or use of this complex, as well as evidence that it exists at all.