Antifake / Factcheck

05 лютага

Lukashenko boasted of gift from BMW. Weekly Top Fake team exposed the truth

In response to the Belarusian Investigative Center’s request to confirm or deny this information, BMW AG stated...

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Fake appearance date: 19.01.2024
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that many years ago the German BMW AG gave him a car as a gift. He made such a statement on January 19, during a visit to the BelGee, the Belarusian-Chinese automobile joint venture. In the weekly fake news review, the Weekly Top Fake team figures out whether it's true.

Drawing the prospects of the Belarusian automotive industry to BelGee employees, Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned a gift from BMW AG. Here is what he, in particular, said:

“Worldwide, people are focused on the production of... hybrid cars. Namely, diesel fuel... gasoline, the engine, recharging — all these are about an electric car. And particularly the electric vehicle as well. Today, the whole world, all the companies, everyone, and BMW — somehow they gave me my first small, tiny car many years ago. That is, they have already started manufacturing electric cars. Thus, the whole entire world points us to where to develop.” 

In response to the Belarusian Investigative Center’s request to confirm or deny this information, BMW AG stated:

“We listened carefully to this speech by Mr. Lukashenko. For BMW AG and its trading partners, as a global automobile manufacturer, compliance with laws and regulations is mandatory.

After checking the facts with our official BMW importer in Belarus, we are unable to confirm Mr. Lukashenko's statement that he "received a car as a gift from BMW in the past".”  

In 2019, Alexander Lukashenko already announced that he’d received a car as a gift from another well-known manufacturer. 

That time he said about Tesla: “I have a Tesla electric car, I sometimes test it. Musk gave it.”

Tesla founder Elon Musk has denied these reports from Lukashenko.