We debunked many fakes created to spread the narrative that Russia and its president Vladimir Putin have huge support all over the world. This time, a video with the Polish media’s logo TVP World logo was shared online. The video says that 68% of Poles supposedly think that Putin is the best president for their country. Let’s get through how our team has debunked this fake.
What happened?
Before the first tour of presidential elections in Poland (first tour of which happened on May 18, 2025), Telegram-channels that systematically post Russian propaganda, including “Bear,” “Shkvarka 2.0,” “Kot Kostyan – official channel,” and others, shared videos with the TVP World’s logo about poll supposedly conducted before the elections.
The captions on the video said that the poll results showed that 68% of Polish people think that Putin is the best president for their country.
“Before the elections, Polish people wanted Putin as their president more than others,” said the video.
Analysis
As a first step, we checked the resources of the English-language Polish news media company TVP World, represented by the official website and accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
We haven’t found neither video nor news about this “poll” on any of these resources.
The next step was to examine the videos posted on the official pages of TVP World, including Instagram, because video that looked like Instagram video was used in pro-Russian Telegram channels.
Comparative analysis of the videos indicates that what was posted in Telegram is fake. They have different locations for the media’s logo, a similar font but with different effects creating shadows for the letters, etc.
Also, the shared video does not fit the storytelling pattern TVP World’s videos have: they include live reporters or live sounds from the scene accompanying the described events.
As in previous cases, pro-Russian channels created the fake video using illustrative footage and publicly available photos and videos. The video was accompanied by titles with false information and a background melody.
Finally, we checked the information on social polls in Poland related to the presidential election.
According to the latest available data, including the IBRiS poll conducted for Polskie Radio 24 and a social poll by the Public Opinion Research Centre, two presidential candidates have the most support among voters — Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and historian Karol Nawrocki.
Polls also show that a record majority of Poles have a negative attitude toward Russians and consider Russia a threat to NATO countries.
Interference in the election campaigns of other countries to impose pro-Russian policies has become a systematic practice of the Kremlin’s disinformation machine. On May 6, Krzysztof Gawkowski, the Minister of Digitalization of Poland, reported unprecedented attempts to interfere and spread Russian disinformation:
“During the current presidential elections in Poland, we are facing an unprecedented attempt to interfere in the electoral process by Russia. They are spreading disinformation in combination with hybrid attacks on Polish critical infrastructure to paralyze the normal functioning of the state,” the Polish minister said.
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Anna Ormanzhy
Translation to English: Elza Diachenko
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