Russian media write that Pope Francis congratulated Volodymyr Putin on his so-called victory in the elections in Russia. However, this is a lie.

StopFake fact-checkers investigated this case and found that the Vatican press service refuted this information in the propaganda publication RIA News, which themselves published this fake. Subsequently, this information was replicated by other media.

While the entire democratic world unanimously condemns such “elections”, calling them authoritarian and repressive, there were also those who recognized the legitimacy of the “civil will”. These are such friendly countries as the DPRK, Cuba, Venezuela, Belarus, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. And the Chinese leader even sent a congratulatory telegram to Putin.