It's surprisingly common how many governments attempt to pass off either games or films as actual photographic evidence.
North Korea famously used scenes from Crimson Tide to double as one of their submarines, whilst more recently, footage released of an ISIS sniper was actually taken from Battlefield 4. Russia, however, takes the biscuit with this one.
The image, which came from the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom, claimed that extremists near Aleppo were receiving truckloads of chemical ammo. Whether that's true or not, we can't ascertain, but we definitely can confirm that the images they used are from Command & Conquer.
. @mod_russia: Extremists near Aleppo received several truckloads of chemical ammo. pic.twitter.com/scCEMXRvwH
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) May 12, 2016
Tiberian Sun, possibly? We stopped playing after Red Alert, to be honest.
Needless to say, pretty much everyone found this hilarious and began getting in on the action.
@AthertonKD @jamesrbuk Most of Aleppo still under control though: pic.twitter.com/KqpN0f67dJ
— David MacLean (@GeordieStory) May 12, 2016
@AthertonKD 'We dispatched attack helicopters to carry out surgical strikes' pic.twitter.com/i43uPrvMFV
— Tim Robinson (@RAeSTimR) May 12, 2016
@RussianEmbassy @mod_russia Evidence of Fascists in Ukraine violating Minsk Protocol pic.twitter.com/6kn7YrL3dc
— dsic (@dsic) May 12, 2016
You'd honestly have to wonder if it was meant as a joke or if they actually thought they could pass this off as a genuinely believable photo from a war zone.
Either way, it's pretty ridiculous.
Via Twitter