The Story
It was the height of the Russian airliner crash's aftermath last week when Russia Today news anchor Remi Maalouf tweeted out a valiant and very Putin-esque comment she said came from the Kremlin himelf.
Here is the tweet.
This is right in line with the sort of war-time rhetoric we've seen a lot from the enigmatic Russian leader—around the same time, he was quoted as saying Russia would "find [Daesh] anywhere on the planet and punish them."
A swift and furious online buzz followed, with news agencies and the Twitterphere grabbing the tough-guy talk and running with it. This was "Classic Putin," Russia Insider said, while social media went crazy.
@WilliamsJon @ Putin's words should be the hallmark of everyone who fight terrorism
— Bhojarajan (@vayakkattil) November 17, 2015
Putin is a leader with the kind of Internet infamy that includes photos of him shirtless on horseback or trudging through thick grass with a rifle. So the quote was an easy one to picture the Kremlin saying. But days later, tragedy struck the Twittersphere.
The Blunder
Like all great things online, this Putin moment was way too good to be true. Days after Maalouf's initial tweet, which apparently was sourced to Facebook, the RT anchor issued an apology.
According to Snopes, this isn't the first time the quote has been tacked onto the wrong person. it was also incorrectly attributed to General Norman Schwarzkopf, US CENTCOM's Commander in Chief during the Gulf War, in 2001. A similar phrase was also muttered by a very solemn-faced Denzel Washington in the 2004 film, Man on Fire. Here is that clip.
SO Putin's God comment never actually happened. But rest assured, that bare-chested horseback ride did. (Photo by AFP/ALEXEY DRUZHININ)
