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It's always the same video. A voice-over in Spanish says, "Look at the line of police cars arriving today in the La Torre neighbourhood (Valencia). And the king is being escorted because otherwise he will be eaten alive… (sic)". In the background, a long line of cars with blue lights, led by the Civil Guard, advances.
They are images that have gone viral in recent days on social networks such as X (formerly Twitter) or Telegram, in different languages, with messages claiming that they are "the king's bodyguards" or Pedro Sánchez´s, on some occasions. The video is real and was taken on the same day of the visit of the king and queen of Spain and the President of the Government to Paiporta, ground zero of the DANA (the Spanish acronym for high-altitude isolated depression, a weather phenomenon that recently caused serious flooding in Valencia and other eastern regions of Spain), on November 3, as well as other affected areas. However, it is a hoax that the long line of cars are the bodyguards of the head of state or the president of the Government, but rather it is "the taking of service of the Agents of the Municipal Police of Madrid" who are collaborating in Valencia, as explained by the body to Maldita.es and shared by themselves on their social networks.
The disinformation has been widely disseminated on Russian websites and Telegram channels, both in Russian and Arabic, although it has also been shared in other languages such as Italian, French and English, taking advantage of the fact that the altercations during the visit of Felipe VI and queen Letizia, the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, and Carlos Mazón, president of the Generalitat Valenciana, occurred on the same day that the Madrid Police toured the streets of Valencia before beginning to provide service and help to his counterparts in that town.
From Russian Telegram channels to the Russian propaganda website “Spanish News Pravda”
On Saturday, November 2, both the Municipal Police and the Madrid Emergency Services announced on various social networks the start of their trip to Valencia. The aid convoy consisted of a total of 178 police officers, 24 Samur officers (municipal emergency and urgent health care service), 43 police vehicles and 6 Samur vehicles, who travelled to help in coordination with the Municipal Police of Valencia "in tasks of helping citizens, cleaning, security, traffic regulation and support for neighbours," explained the Madrid´s Municipal Police.
The video that has gone viral, claiming to be the Spanish king's bodyguards, is from November 3 and corresponds to "the taking of service of the agents of the Madrid Municipal Police who are collaborating in Valencia," the municipal body explains to Maldita.es, which took place "between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m." approximately.
Searching, we found the video uploaded to YouTube at 10:21 a.m. that day. “The devices finally arrive in Valencia! Oh no! They are police officers to entourage the king and Pedro Sánchez while the victims have been abandoned for days”, can be read in the description. Already at 11:24 in the morning we can see that it appears on the Telegram channel, Zvezdanews, belonging to “the television and radio company of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, as indicated on its website .
At 11:32, the Russian-linked website Spanish News Pravda publishes the video on its website with the headline “Residents of Spain outraged by the ‘kilometre’ of the king’s motorcade, who came to assess the situation”. Later, at 14:54, the website publishes another one with the headline “Spaniards surprised by the convoy of king Felipe VI, who came to Valencia to personally assess the magnitude of the disaster after the floods”. Maldita.es has found other websites and accounts on X in Russian spreading the same content.
What is the Pravda network?
In an analysis carried out by the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), in which Maldita.es participated along with other European verification organisations, they explain that Pravda “is a Russian disinformation network”. They identified a total of 24 websites in different countries of the European Union, including Spanish News Pravda (previously called pravda-es.com), five in European countries that are not part of the EU and four in countries in Africa and Asia.
According to the Viginum agency, part of France's General Secretariat for National Defence and Security, "one of Pravda´s main objectives is to spread disinformation and pro-Russian propaganda in different EU languages through a network of websites called Pravda".
The EDMO adds that “all Pravda websites use the same type of sources : state-owned or state-controlled Russian media outlets such as Tass, RIA, Lenta, Tsargrad, etc.; Russian-language Telegram accounts , which are automatically translated into local languages; pro-Russian Telegram accounts posting in local languages (usually content that has been automatically translated), or sometimes reliable sources when they post content that Russia may consider favourable”.
The hoax was spread by an Arabic website that publishes content from Russia Today (RT) claiming that the caravan of cars “provokes widespread anger in the country”
Russia Today (RT), the Russian state television channel banned in the European Union following the start of the invasion of Ukraine, circumvents these measures by publishing its content on websites other than RT. It also extends its content to languages and countries outside the EU.
The hoax that the long line of cars were the bodyguards of the king of Spain has also spread to other countries. It was spread by Nabd , an Arabic website that publishes content about different African countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco, among others. This website has a RT section in which it also published the video on November 3 with statements such as “Its length reached one kilometre! The motorcade of King Felipe VI of Spain to inspect the effects of the floods that devastated the city of Valencia provoked widespread anger in the country”.
The video was also uploaded to YouTube by another Arabic channel that also shares content about Russia and the Kremlin on November 4.
Spreading disinformation with the aim of destabilising a country or its institutions is what the European External Action Service (EEAS) calls Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), describing “a pattern of largely non-illegal behaviour that threatens or has the potential to negatively affect political values, procedures and processes”. The strategies of disinformation campaigns coordinated and disseminated by Russian websites and channels are often repeated. It consists of publishing disinformation simultaneously in several countries and languages, as has happened with other campaigns analysed by Maldita.es.
Circulation in Spain and other countries such as Italy, Greece or France
In Spain, the same hoax was widely disseminated by channels such as Alvise Pérez's on Telegram, who shared it on November 3 at 12:47 with texts such as “The king's entourage and Pedro Sánchez together mobilise more than 50 police vehicles and volunteer agents”. Throughout the day, it also circulated on other social networks such as Twitter and YouTube.
It also moved to countries such as Italy, Greece and France, according to fact -checkers in those countries such as AFP Factuel and Pagella Politica/FACTA, members, like Maldita.es, of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network, EFCSN.
