This thesis was circulated on social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that during an address by Joseph Biden to members of the International Association of Firefighters, he said that “the doctors were checking his skull to see if there was a brain”. As evidence, a video of the appeal itself is added to the publication, where such a statement can be heard. This is manipulation.

The case was investigated by the fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project, who found out that the propagandists took the words of the US President out of context, then distorted its meaning. As the checkers explain the fact, a recording of this Biden speech was published on the White House YouTube channel. The President of the United States told how firefighters saved his life. At first, he told a joke that the doctors were looking for his brain, but Biden continued to tell the real story. “I came back from a trip, after being away for a couple of days, and — I had these terrible headaches.  I was diagnosed with having a — well, anyway.  They had to take the top of my head off a couple times, see if I had a brain”, he said. Talking about the brain, Biden laughed. Then he said “all kidding aside, what happened was..” and he went on to tell the real story. That is, Joe Biden told a joke, which he said later. However, the propagandists cut out this moment from the video and did not explain that it was a joke.

Propagandists systematically spread fakes about Ukrainian partners in order to discredit them. Thus, Russian propaganda uses the ridicule tactics and tries to create the illusion that Ukrainian partners are despised.

We recall that Detector Media denied a number of fakes about US President Joe Biden, in particular about Biden's alleged fall from an airplane during a visit to Warsaw or about his statement, which claimed that Putin could not be defeated. Analysts also denied the fake about Biden’s meeting with Zelenskyi’s “double” in Kyiv and, against the backdrop of the meeting, explained that representatives of local authorities did not create any instructions “how to deal with an American during a meeting”.

What Russian propagandists wrote about Joe Biden's visit to Kyiv can be read here.