On April 29, the Krasnodar-based outlet Anapa Region published an article headlined “Exclusive interview with the governor of Krasnodar Krai on the situation in Tuapse.” The article was quickly deleted — though a copy was preserved in a web archive — and the outlet reported that its website had been hacked and the interview planted. The article contained the following statements by Governor Veniamin Kondratyev:

• “There is a great deal of speculation and manipulation on this subject [referring to drone strikes] … In some cases, individual fragments of enemy drones cause minor damage to our facilities, but on the whole these drones are, in essence, nothing but impotent rage.”
• “Our air defense units and electronic warfare detachments performed with maximum effectiveness… Had it not been for the coordinated work of our military, hundreds of times more strike drones could have reached the territory of the region. It is therefore important to understand the key point: our region has always been and will remain under reliable protection.”
• “We are seeing a new — I would say treacherous — innovative tactic from the enemy: they attach additional tanks of fuel oil to the drones. Why? So that when shot down, they create a bright flame and smoke. This is pure psychological warfare, playing to the camera. We call it the ‘fuel oil droplet effect.’ When our guys shoot down a target, the fuel oil disperses and burns on the ground.”
• “There are no serious strikes — I am telling you this officially. And if there are some pockets of smoke and localized fires, it is exclusively due to the falling debris of destroyed aircraft and their subsequent uncontrolled detonation on impact with the ground.”
• “I want to say a separate word about our prosecutor’s office. Our colleagues are not simply maintaining order — they have put forward an initiative: to carry out land reclamation and plant trees at the sites where enemy drones have come down. This is exactly the right, responsible approach. We will respond to every act of aggression with creation.”
• “Dear fellow citizens, I urge you to do one thing only — stay calm and keep your heads. Do not believe the rumors circulating online. There are no environmental hazards, our skies are secure. We recommend simply not opening your windows for the time being and taking basic precautions — this is normal practice.”
• “Kuban is a fortress. We have everything we need to ensure security. We are working, we are protecting, and we are building. The situation is under my full personal control.”

“The unauthorized material was immediately removed and the site’s functionality restored. All information contained in the article is a malicious fabrication and a fake, with which our editorial team has no connection,” the Krasnodar-based outlet Anapa Region said.

The outlet added that its municipal status made it implausible that it would have interviewed the governor about another city, and that “the content of the article and the manner in which the material was presented clearly indicate that the information is not credible.”

The editorial team called on anyone who had shared the fake material to delete any messages based on it, since they did not reflect reality.

Anapa Region did not identify who was behind the publication. The outlet said it was “committed to honest, open, and reliable editorial policy” and that “the enemy never sleeps.”

The outlet also pointed to the Polish Russian-language publication Vot Tak as a possible participant in the scheme. Anapa Region linked Vot Tak’s journalists to the “plant” after they noticed the deleted interview and contacted Anapa Region’s editor-in-chief for clarification.

“The deliberate nature of the provocation is also indicated by the fact that shortly after the article was removed from the site, our outlet’s official email received a request for information on the subject from the publication Vot Tak, officially designated as a foreign agent in Russia,” Anapa Region wrote. The outlet concluded that the request from Vot Tak “attests to a pre-planned scheme to introduce and spread the fake.”

Anapa Region published a screenshot of a letter it claimed to have received from Vot Tak, though it is unclear whether this is actually the letter the Polish publication sent. On its own website, Vot Tak published an article about the publication and deletion of the “exclusive governor’s interview,” saying its journalists had reached out to Anapa Region for comment but received no reply. Anapa Region says it did respond.

Kondratyev did not comment on the publication or deletion of the “exclusive interview.” It is unclear whether he gave an interview to Anapa Region, and if so, when. The interview was taken as genuine not only by independent outlets but also by pro-war bloggers.

Over the past two weeks, the city of Tuapse in Krasnodar Krai has come under Ukrainian drone attack several times, with strikes targeting the Tuapse marine terminal and a local oil refinery. Petroleum products have been burning in Tuapse for 14 of the last 16 days, causing an environmental disaster in the city.