Fake front page and headlines: “€50 million to keep Pashinyan in power” not reported by French newspapers

Mika Badalyan, a member of the council of the Russian organization “Eurasia” and an opposition blogger, recently claimed on his Telegram channel—citing French media—that French President Emmanuel Macron is “allocating €50 million to maintain the power of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.”

Badalyan referred to the well-known French economic and business magazine La Tribune.

“La Tribune openly states that Paris is investing €50 million to save a failed regime,” Badalyan wrote. His post was also shared by the pro-Russian Armenian Telegram channel “Tsitsak.”

Fake front page and fabricated story

The Fact Investigation Platform examined La Tribune’s website and other online resources and found that no such article had been published.

Notably, the front page shared by Badalyan displays issue No. 8305, dated April 10, 2026. FIP.am found that the actual front page of that issue is entirely different, with the headline: “French industry in decline.”

🔴 À la une de La Tribune du 10 avril

🕦 La productivité française en panne

🇪🇺 Souveraineté – Sous sanction américaine, la non-vie numérique du juge Guillou
⛽️ Carburant – Amir Reza-Tofighi (CPME) : « Faisons des aides simples »
✈️ Aéro – Airbus mise sur les services pour… pic.twitter.com/XZj9IoW0Wm

— La Tribune (@LaTribune) April 9, 2026

Thus, the magazine’s front page has been falsified, and it did not publish any such claim about Pashinyan or Macron.

X user identified as source of the fabrication

The claim had earlier circulated on the social media platform X via an account named Satoshi Nekomoto.

French newspapers have begun to pay more attention to the relationship between Emmanuel Macron and Nikol Pashinyan@LaTribune @libe @LaCroix @EmmanuelMacron @NikolPashinyan @ZartonkMedia @armlurnews @a1plusnews @PanARMENIANNet @epressam @AFP @FRANCE24 @BFMTV @TF1info @franceinfo pic.twitter.com/67PAQZsczX

— SatoshiNekomoto (@cggathome) April 13, 2026

In addition to the fabricated La Tribune front page, the account also shared front pages allegedly belonging to two other French publications—La Croix and Liberation—featuring supposed scandalous headlines related to Pashinyan.

According to the posts, La Croix also claimed that Macron was providing tens of millions of euros in support to Pashinyan’s government, while Libération allegedly carried a headline stating that Macron was “making a new Zelenskyy [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy-ed.] out of Pashinyan.”

These media outlets have made no such publications. Moreover, their front pages have also been falsified. For example, Liberation issue No. 13910 for April—which was manipulated by the account—has a completely different design, with a headline addressing the issue of the Strait of Hormuz blockade.

Meanwhile, the cover of La Croix issue No. 43494 features Pope Leo of Rome, with headlines related to him.

Thus, the front pages of reputable French publications have been falsified and used to attribute claims never published by the outlets.

Nane Manasyan