Russian President Vladimir Putin “intercepts adrenochrome shipment headed to United States.”
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Vladimir Putin didn’t intercept shipment of chemical compound adrenochrome
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This story was fabricated. It appeared on Real Raw News, a site that regularly publishes false, fantastical stories authored by someone using a pseudonym.
With the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine looming, a recent blog post claims a victory point for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The post says Putin intercepted a shipment of a chemical called adrenochrome that was bound for the United States.
Adrenochrome features heavily in QAnon conspiracy theories, which purport the baseless idea that a global cabal of pedophiles is harvesting the chemical from the blood of children to stay young and healthy.
That’s false, and so is the claim that Putin foiled a shipment of it.
The Feb. 8 Real Raw News blog post alleging that Putin "intercepts adrenochrome shipment headed to (the) United States" was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
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The post claims that in January, Russian special forces rescued "50 imprisoned, emaciated children" from an "adrenochrome farm" in Ukraine where "their captors had so frequently drained their brittle bodies of blood and adrenal fluid that their survival depended on being kept in a medically induced coma, fed intravenously." It cites as its source a Russian Federal Security Service agent.
We found no credible news reports or other sources to corroborate the claims in this post.
Real Raw News has a disclaimer saying it contains "humor, parody and satire," though the author has defended his stories as truth. The website also regularly publishes false, fantastical stories authored by someone using a pseudonym.
We rate this baseless post Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Blog post, Feb. 8, 2023
PolitiFact, Fabricated story falsely claims Vladimir Putin destroyed an adrenochrome lab in Ukraine, Jan. 25, 2023
PolitiFact, Hangings, guillotines and Gitmo: Going behind Real Raw News’ sensational (and fabricated) headlines, Sept. 24, 2021
The New York Times, Twitch, Where Far-Right Influencers Feel at Home, April 27, 2021
The Daily Beast, How QAnon Became Obsessed With ‘Adrenochrome,’ an Imaginary Drug Hollywood Is ‘Harvesting’ from Kids, Aug. 14, 2020
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Vladimir Putin didn’t intercept shipment of chemical compound adrenochrome
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