Russia released fake footage as evidence of a new cruise missile test

The Russian defence ministry on 23 July has released imagery showing the Russian nuclear missile submarine cruiser “Tomsk” launched a cruise missile at a surface target in the Sea of Okhotsk.

According to the Russian MoD, An anti-ship missile from Tomsk submarine was successfully hit a target at a distance of 150 kilometers.

“The combat training was provided by high-altitude MiG-31 fighters, unmanned aerial vehicles of the Russian Pacific Fleet, and also about 10 warships and auxiliary vessels included nuclear missile submarine cruiser “Tomsk”,” – said in the statement by Russian MoD.

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Footage used by the defence ministry to prove anti-ship missile successfully hit its target was actually taken in 2016 and filmed during the Kavkaz exercises.

The original video is actually showing Bal coastal missile systems hit a target that simulating a surface ship during Kavkaz-2016 strategic command military exercises and was released on 9 September 2016.

Early, the Russian defence ministry also attempted to pass off an image from a video game as “irrefutable evidence” that the US was cooperating with Isil in Syria.

The ministry claimed in a Facebook post and tweet that the picture showed an “Isis automobile convoy” fleeing Abu Kamal, Syria, under US protection on November 9.

In fact, it was taken from a 2015 promotional video showing AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron, a mobile game in which players fire at ground targets from a US warplane.

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