In 2021, after nearly 18 years of translating the Arabic media, Mideastwire.com’s core editorial team - Nicholas Noe, Mirella Dagher, Zeina Rouheib, Mohamed-Dhia Hammami and Ibrahim Jouhari, launched our Value Checking effort. Mideastwire.com's original purpose has therefore expanded: To reliably translate key articles appearing in the Arabic media but also to regularly provide objective, fact-based Value Checks in Arabic and English for some of the pieces that we think our subscribers, as well as the public at large, will benefit from in furthering their own understanding of the Middle East and beyond. Indeed, as in most other parts of the global media-scape, the Arabic media also suffers from misinformation, a lack of context and poor transparency, especially when allowing readers to easily understand the sources for various claims.

Our Value Checking Mission

March 3, 2022


Did Moscow refuse to receive the Lebanese president’s envoy?


Lead Fact Checker: Marlene Khalife

Feedback Contact: info@arabmediafactcheck.org

Fact Check Assessment: False

On March 3, 2022, the Lebanese Al-Liwaa newspaper carried a report quoting “diplomatic sources” as saying that Russian Deputy-Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov refused to receive Advisor of the President of the Lebanese Republic Amal Abou Zeid in Moscow against the backdrop of the statement issued by the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants on February 28, 2022, which condemned Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.


Al-Liwaa’s report was circulated by several websites, including Lebanon 24 and IM Lebanon.


But on the same date, i.e. March 3, 2022, Al-Modon website carried a report about Lebanese-Russian relations, entitled: “Aoun approaches Moscow and Hezbollah rejects ministerial demarcation committee,” which indicated that the Lebanese president’s advisor for Russian affairs, Amal Abou Zeid, visited Moscow, met with Russian Deputy-Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, and justified the position adopted by Lebanon towards the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 


Likewise, on March 4, 2022, Al-Manar Channel aired an interview on Panorama Today talk show with Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Rudakov, in which he categorically denied that Bogdanov refused to receive the president of the republic’s envoy. Rudakov’s interview and the denial on minute 14:45. 


As for the concerned official, the advisor of the president of the republic, former Deputy Amal Abou Zeid, he chose to categorically deny the report regarding his non-reception by Bogdanov with a tweet accompanied by a picture of him with Bogdanov on the “Friends of Amal Abou Zeid” Twitter account on March 4, 2022, i.e. just one day after the fake report was published. And the account captioned the picture as follows: 


“Amal Abou Zeid from Moscow during a meeting with Bogdanov, which discussed the latest developments between Russia and Ukraine and Lebanon’s position.”


Fact-Checking Assessment: False


Based on the denial of Al-Liwaa account by Amal Abu Zeid, who posted a picture of him with Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow just one day after the report came out, and after the confirmation of the visit by Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Rudakov in person during an interview with Al-Manar Channel, as well as Al-Modon’s subsequent publishing of a report surrounding the meeting between the president’s advisor for Russian affairs and the Russian deputy foreign minister, the original report carried by Al-Liwaa newspaper on March 3, 2022, is false.

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