The posted text – through its title – stresses the fact that Ksenija from Russia moved “here” thus creating a false impression for the readers that she came to North Macedonia, although this Russian citizen moved to Serbia with her family which can be seen from the the contents of the article.

We are fact-checking the post on Facebook sharing news from Serbia, presenting it as news from North Macedonia thereby manipulating the readers.

The post shares an article titled:

Ksenija moved from Rissia here and says: When I tell them I’m Russian, they treat me

When you open the article however, you notice that the “here” stressed in the title of the text, is Serbia, not North Macedonia. And that becomes obvious in the first two sentences of the contents:

A large number of Russians choose the Balkan countries to live in. More specifically, they come to Serbia deciding to leave their motherland, especially after the latest events. Hence, a month ago, Ksenija moved from Russia to Serbia. On the social networks she explains the differences and how she was welcomed.

One can notice from the text that it has been translated from Serbian language using Google Translate. Thruthmeter searched for the original text and found it in Serbian media. The text covers Ksenija’s experience – a Russian women who moved with her family to Serbia.

Interestingly, the article was published in Serbian media in October 2022, but the post fact-checked was published two months later, in December 2022, and presented as a new article.

Ksenija on her YouTube Channel regularly posts videos talking about the similarities and differences between the Serbs and the Russians and they are quite viral.

Evidently, the fact-checked post had no intention to inform the public. The purpose was to manipulate the public as to attract more clicks. The posted text – through its title – stresses the fact that Ksenija from Russia moved “here” thus creating a false impression with the readers that she came to North Macedonia, although this Russian citizen moved to Serbia with her family which can be seen from the contents of the article. Therefore, we conclude that the post fact-checked is lacking context.

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