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** The Facts on ‘De-Nazifying’ Ukraine
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Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his military's brutal attack on Ukrainians by claiming Russia seeks a “de-Nazification” of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said he won't negotiate with Russia if it brings up the terms "de-Nazification” or "de-militarization" of Ukraine.

This week, FactCheck.org Deputy Managing Editor Robert Farley took a deep dive into the issue of neo-Nazis in Ukraine. Rob spoke with numerous experts who say Ukrainian neo-Nazis are small in number and have little political influence, but founded one of the country's best paramilitary units.

The Azov battalion, which was founded by members of two neo-Nazi groups, won back the city of Mariupol from separatists in 2014. At that time, then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko praised Azov as “our best warriors” and officially enrolled the unit into the Ukrainian National Guard.

But far-right, ultra-nationalist political groups have been on the "political periphery, wielding little influence over national politics," Melanie Mierzejewski-Voznyak wrote for "The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right," which was published in 2018.

Eugene Finkel, an associate professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, told Rob: “Neo-Nazi, far right and xenophobic groups do exist in Ukraine, like in pretty much any other country, including Russia. They are vocal and can be prone to violence but they are numerically small, marginal and their political influence at the state level is non-existent."

Read the full story, "The Facts on ‘De-Nazifying’ Ukraine ([link removed]) ."
HOW WE KNOW
In our article ([link removed]) this week about the financial condition of Medicare ([link removed]) and Social Security ([link removed]) , we cited the annual reports issued by the trustees of both programs. In these reports, the trustees give detailed information on beneficiaries, revenues and expenses for the past year. They also look ahead, providing revenue and cost projections for the next 75 years based on current law and assumptions that, to a certain extent, change from year to year.
FEATURED FACT
Save America, a leadership PAC formed by former President Donald Trump, had more than $110 million on hand, as of Feb. 28, according to ([link removed]) its most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission. Despite its massive reserves, Save America has donated just $205,000 to 41 House and Senate candidates running for office in 2022. Read more about Save America ([link removed]) and others seeking to influence the midterm elections in our "2022 Players Guide ([link removed]) " feature.
WORTHY OF NOTE
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and co-founder of FactCheck.org, addressed the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on March 24, during a session about improving science communication.

Jamieson proposed four ways that federal health and science agencies could combat misinformation and improve communication with the public.
* Establish a monitoring, prevalence assessment and response system for the Office of the Surgeon General, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, building on existing efforts.
* Make all monitoring, prevalence assessment and response data available to scholars in real time.
* Use direct contact with the public to communicate foundational knowledge and bolster trust.
* Audit the language of all CDC, NIH and FDA public-facing materials to flag and fix instances that increase public susceptibility to misconceptions.

In 2014, the Annenberg Public Policy Center opened an area of study in the Science of Science Communication, to investigate how scientific evidence can be more effectively conveyed to the public.

You can watch Jamieson's presentation on YouTube ([link removed]) .
REPLY ALL

Reader: Maybe you should check your fact-checkers!!! So biased against Trump! It’s obvious. Once Biden took office he stopped all gas/oil production, including the Keystone, etc. We only have high gas prices due to Biden & no one else. Thanks.

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: I did check our fact-checkers, and this is what I found: Biden hasn’t “stopped all gas/oil production,” as you say.

In 2020, the US averaged 11.3 million barrels per day. In 2021, the U.S. average was 11.2 million barrels per day. The difference is less than 1%. But production is expected to rise in 2022 and 2023. The Energy Information Administration writes ([link removed]) in its most recent short-term energy report: “We forecast that production will rise to average 12.0 million b/d in 2022 and then to record-high production on an annual-average basis of 13.0 million b/d in 2023. The previous annual-average record of 12.3 million b/d was set in 2019.”

As for Keystone XL, President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline when he took office. However, that project has been mired in court fights ([link removed].) brought by environmentalists and local Native American groups -- which is the reason why the project did not start in the four years that Trump had been in office. As Tom Kloza ([link removed]) , the global head of energy analysis and a co-founder of the Oil Price Information Service, told us ([link removed]) : “One might look at crude prices later in the decade and put some blame on the current administration but we are importing record amounts of Canadian crude and the Keystone XL Pipeline wouldn’t have been online by now under any circumstances.”

The fact is, oil prices are set on the global market and presidents of both parties have little control over them. Nevertheless, presidents get blamed whenever gasoline prices go up. We wrote about that when Republicans blamed President Barack Obama ([link removed]) and Democrats blamed President Donald Trump ([link removed]) for high gasoline prices.


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "Examining Rick Scott’s Claim That Medicare, Social Security Will Soon Go ‘Bankrupt’ ([link removed]) ": Sen. Rick Scott went too far in claiming that Medicare will go “bankrupt” in four years and Social Security in 12 years. Government trustees project that certain trust funds would become depleted by then, but payments would continue, albeit at a reduced rate.
* "Former Judge Janice Rogers Brown Was Not Nominated to the Supreme Court ([link removed]) ": Republicans did not nominate former Judge Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Supreme Court. A Facebook post falsely claims that Brown — not Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson — was the first Black woman to be nominated to the nation’s highest court.
* "Facebook Video Misrepresents CDC Report on COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters ([link removed]) ": A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that side effects such as a sore arm or headache following a booster dose of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were less frequent than after the second dose. But a Facebook video from a chiropractor misrepresents the report’s findings, the systems that record adverse events and the availability of information on those events.
* "CNN Video Shows Canadian Fire Gear Donated to Ukraine, Not ‘Fake Footage’ ([link removed]) ": A recent Facebook post falsely claims that CNN footage from the war in Ukraine was faked, citing a firefighter’s jacket bearing the name of a Canadian city. But the footage was shot in Ukraine. The jacket was donated by a Canadian organization.
* "Viral Photo of Russian Bomber Shows Incident from 2020 ([link removed]) ": Amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, a misleading photo posted March 22 on Facebook shows an American fighter jet intercepting a Russian bomber near Alaskan airspace. But the incident was not related to the current situation in Ukraine; the photo appeared in an article published in Aero Magazine in June 2020.
* "Save America PAC ([link removed]) ": A Republican leadership PAC formed by former President Donald Trump.
* "American Bridge 21st Century/AB PAC ([link removed]) ": A liberal super PAC that conducts opposition research to aid Democratic candidates and organizations.
* "House Majority PAC ([link removed]) ": A Democratic PAC focused on keeping a Democratic majority in the House.
* "Congressional Leadership Fund ([link removed]) ": A conservative super PAC aiming to win a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "Fauci sigue haciendo apariciones públicas y no ha ‘desaparecido' ([link removed]) :" El Dr. Anthony Fauci ha seguido haciendo apariciones públicas, aunque la cobertura de noticias se ha alejado en gran medida de la pandemia desde que Rusia invadió Ucrania en febrero y los casos de COVID-19 han disminuido drásticamente. Algunos políticos y críticos, sin embargo, han sugerido que Fauci se ha vuelto tan impopular que ha “desaparecido” de la vista pública. Esto no es cierto. Fauci ha hecho al menos una docena de apariciones públicas desde el 15 de febrero.
* "Publicaciones malinterpretan un documento sobre el control de seguridad de la vacuna contra el COVID-19 de Pfizer ([link removed]) ": Un documento de Pfizer publicado recientemente por la Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos de los Estados Unidos (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés) describe eventos adversos notificados tras la vacunación y corrobora la continua seguridad de la vacuna contra el COVID-19 de la compañía. Sin embargo, un popular video y otras publicaciones en línea dan a entender erróneamente que la vacuna causó estos eventos. Muchas publicaciones asumen, también incorrectamente, que una larga lista de problemas de salud que Pfizer está monitoreando, ocurrieron y se debieron la vacunación.

Have a question about COVID-19 and the vaccines? Visit our SciCheck page ([link removed]) for answers. It's available in Spanish ([link removed]) , too.
Donate to Support Our Work ([link removed])

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