“Putin humiliated Merz”? How a satirical quote from 2025 turned into today’s “sensation”

“Putin’s speech” about Germany again went viral on social networks sensation. But it turned out that the text appeared back in 2025 as a political satire.

On social networks and parts of the European media again Vladimir Putin’s spectacular “speech” went viralin which the Russian president supposedly explains to Friedrich Merz why Russia will never attack Germany – but a check shows that this is an old satirical text that is already a year and a half old.

The reason for the new wave of publications was a post by French user Rémi Philiponet in X, published on September 7.

In it, Vladimir Putin is credited with a long address to Germany, allegedly made after the elections in Saxony-Anhalt.

The text really sounds like it was specially written in order to instantly go viral on social networks.

“We don’t want to attack you. Why should we do this?

Further, “Putin” allegedly lists eight reasons why Russia does not need Germany at all.

Among them:

• public debt of approximately €2.5 trillion;
• plans to borrow hundreds of billions more for rearmament;
• huge costs for migrants;
• problems of the German education system;
• collapsing infrastructure;
• Deutsche Bahn crisis;
• lack of own energy resources and raw materials;
• the assertion that Russian industry no longer needs German engineers.

It all ends with a particularly effective phrase:

“Even if you invited us yourself, gave in and raised the white flag, we still wouldn’t come.”

There’s only one problem: Putin didn’t say this

There is no such speech either on the Kremlin’s official website, or in the transcripts of the Russian president’s speeches, or in the materials of major international agencies.

Moreover, the origin of the text has already been verified back in March 2025.

Greek fact-checking project Ellinika Hoaxes then established that almost the same text was distributed on German Facebook as an alleged appeal from Putin to the German government and population.

One of the earliest publications found was a post by a German politician Thomas HartungAfD-related, dated 7 March 2025.

And here lies the key to the story.

The very next day, Hartung added a clarification to the publication:

“Of course, this is satire. But it’s very successful and hits the target exactly.”

That is, the author of one of the early versions of the text directly warned readers that this not a real quote from the Russian President.

But satire quickly lost its signature “satire”

What happened next is something that happens regularly on social networks.

The text began to be copied separately from the original post.

With each subsequent repost the following disappeared:

• author’s name;
• link to original publication;
• the word “satire”;
• the context in which everything was written.

As a result, a few days later the fictitious address was already being distributed as Putin’s real speech.

The German agency DPA also checked this text in 2025 and came to the same conclusion: there is no evidence that Putin ever made such a speech.

Why is the story resurfacing now?

The appearance of the text in September 2026 is no coincidence.

He again proved to be a perfect fit for Germany’s current political background.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz is under intense pressure after regional elections and growing support for the AfD.

At the same time, relations between Berlin and Moscow remain extremely tense, and Merz takes one of the toughest positions in Europe on the issue of Russia and support for Ukraine.

Against this background, the satirical “Putin speech”, which portrays Germany as a country with a huge debt, a migration crisis, a collapsing infrastructure and political elites who are allegedly preparing to fight with Russia instead of solving internal problems, turns out to be almost ideal viral content.

People share it not because they have checked the source, but because the text aligns with a pre-existing political belief.

It’s especially interesting that some of the content actually resembles Putin’s actual rhetoric

This is what makes a fake convincing.

In real speeches, the Russian president repeatedly spoke about:

• the decline in the competitiveness of German industry;
• expensive energy resources after the refusal of Russian gas;
• economic consequences of sanctions;
• declining living standards in Germany;
• Berlin’s policy, which, according to him, runs counter to the interests of the German economy.

More recently, Putin did criticize the Merz government, saying that Berlin’s current policies are related to internal political problems and that the German leadership is not protecting the interests of its own citizens.

In other words, the fictitious text was written to sound believable against the backdrop of Putin’s real statements.

But believability is not yet authenticity.

Some numbers also require caution.

Even within a satirical text, real data is mixed with journalism.

For example, Germany’s national debt is indeed in the trillions of euros, but the claim that the country is effectively unable to service it is a political assessment, not an economic fact.

The same goes for claims about €50 billion in annual spending solely on migrants or the thesis that “almost no one speaks German” in German schools.

These are rhetorical hyperboles characteristic of political satire.

That is why the original author designated the material as satirical.

Here is the post that started the current wave

Le président Vladimir Vladimirovitch Poutine s’adresse aux Allemands, en particulier à Friedrich Merz ?? Choqué par les résultats obtenus par l’AFD.

“Nous ne voulons pas vous attaquer!” Pourquoi le ferions-nous? Cette époque est révolue depuis longtemps! Quiconque a encore… pic.twitter.com/Ext0Z5nM8P

— Philiponet Rémi?? (@RPhiliponet) September 7, 2026

It is characteristic that the publication makes no reference to Putin’s speech, nor to the Kremlin, nor to the video recording, nor to the transcript.

There is only the text itself.

How satire turns into political “sensation”

The mechanism here is quite simple.

Step one: a satirical text appears, built on recognizable political problems.

Step two: they start copying it without the original context.

Step three: The note about satire disappears.

Step four: After some time, the text returns in another language and another country as a “real quote.”

Step five: The media reprint it with reference to each other or to social networks.

This is how, in September 2026, the story of 2025 became “news” again.

At the same time, the story about Germany itself does not disappear anywhere.

Just because a particular quote turns out to be fictitious does not mean that the issues around which it is built are also fictitious.

Germany is indeed going through a difficult period: industry faces high energy costs, Deutsche Bahn’s infrastructure problems have become chronic, migration remains a central political issue, and sharp increases in defense spending are increasingly controversial.

The growth of the AfD shows that a significant part of German voters are extremely dissatisfied with the current course.

And that is why satirical speech has proven to be so viable.

It is not a Putin quote.

But she very accurately fell into the political contradictions of modern Germany – so accurately that after a year and a half, many again believed in her without any evidence.

Verification source: Ellinika Hoaxes – analysis of the origin of the quote.

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