Russian Defence Ministry in Victory Day social media gaffe
Twitter post by Russian Defence Ministry reading: "Flypast of the ‘Russian Knights’ and ‘Swifts’ aerobatics groups in rhombus formation above Red Square during the Victory Day parade"
10 May 2017
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Elise Morton
Yesterday Russia’s Ministry of Defence fell foul of the intricacies of social media — presumably the post scheduling function — when it posted a photo of Moscow’s Victory Day flypast, some time after said flypast was cancelled.
The Ministry of Defence’s official Twitter account published a photo of the Russian Knights and Swifts aerobatic demonstration teams flying over Red Square during the Victory Day parade, despite the fact that the flypast had earlier been cancelled due to bad weather conditions.
This discrepancy did not go unnoticed by Twitter users, who pointed out that the photo had been taken in 2013. The Ministry of Defence swiftly removed the tweet after this revelation.
The social media gaffe seemed to be adding insult to injury for Victory Day organisers, in the wake of reports that 293.6 million rubles ($5.1 million) were spent on securing a cloudless sky for Victory Day.
Source: Afisha (in Russian)
