The claim

A departure board at Belgrade Airport (BEG) will display departures to “KIEV RUSSIA” and “KOSOVO SERBIA”.

Our conclusion

The picture is a fake. Current flight boards at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade look different. And further image details expose the clumsy fake.

Belgrade flight board fake
fake flight board, Belgrade airport

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Belgrade airport departure board

To make a long story short, the boards at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade look different. DW had the airport operator confirm that the picture above is not a real board at Belgrade Airport. Even current boards always have the “VINCI AIRPORTS” logo at the top right. However, it is conceivable that an older photo of these scoreboards, which had a different layout, was used for the forgery.

MIMIKAMA
A departure board at Belgrade Airport. In addition to Latin letters, there is also a version in Cyrillic.

More signs of a fake

Even if one would assume that at least the tablet itself would be authentic, there are other indications that clearly indicate that it is a forgery. Let's go through them one by one. December 14, 2022 actually fell on a Wednesday. The two flight numbers can also be found on this day, departing from Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade:

in the flight details (source: airportinfo.live ): The flights actually went to Vienna and Basel. The scheduled departure time of the AirSerbia flight is correct, that of the Wizz Air flight is not. Both flights were delayed, this should be clear on the departure board, but it isn't.

Between the time and the flight number you actually see the airline logo and not a flag. Destination cities are always specified, but Kosovo is not a city, but a region. The text “KOSOVO SERBIA” has also slipped slightly downwards.

What is the purpose of this fake?

This can actually only be a conscious, nationalistic provocation . Although the Kosovo parliament declared its independence , this is not recognized by certain states - including Russia and Serbia. The former Serbian region of Kosovo is still claimed by Serbian nationalists.

The situation is similar with Kyiv (Kiev), the Ukrainian capital. This is not a Russian city and was not occupied by Russia in the current war. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin sees it a little differently: he justifies the war of aggression against Ukraine with alleged territorial claims, among other things. Serbian nationalists support this Russian invasion.

CONCLUSION: The photo is a blatant fake. The embassy suggests that Serbian nationalists were the perpetrators. This is also supported by the massive sharing of this picture in relevant Telegram groups.


Sources: DW , DPA-factchecking , BMZ , airportinfo.live

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