Pages on social media circulated a statement attributed to Russian Foreign Minister "Sergey Lavrov", in which he was said to have stated that ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had appealed to international human rights organisations to intervene in order to move the remains of his father, Hafez al-Assad, to Russian territory.
The Kashaf team followed up on the report and reviewed official and credible Russian media sources, foremost among them the "Sputnik" and "TASS" agencies as well as the "Russia Today" channel. No report or statement containing this quote, or indicating that Lavrov had issued it, appeared in their archives. The official accounts of the Russian Foreign Ministry likewise contained no reference to the matter.
Why is this claim false?
Fabricated content: a statement attributed to the Russian foreign minister that has not been confirmed as issued by any official or credible source, with no trace of it in the archives of the official Russian agencies or on the official accounts of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
