No, President Putin did not call WEF founder Klaus Schwab a ‘globalist terrorist’

What is the claim?

A post circulating claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin called the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Klaus Schwab, a "globalist terrorist."

The post originally surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) with a caption stating, “President Putin: World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab is a globalist terrorist who is holding humanity to ransom. Their New World Order has failed and their days are numbered.”

American right-wing media commentator Jackson Hinkle shared the post, gaining over one and a half million views and over 53,000 likes. Multiple users shared a screenshot of Hinkle’s post, making the same claim. Archived versions of the viral posts can be accessed here, here and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: X/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim is false and originates from a well-known source of misinformation. There is no evidence that the Russian president made any such comments about Schwab.

What did we find?

We traced the article back to The People’s Voice a website infamous for publishing unverified information formerly known as NewsPunch. The article, dated October 5, 2023, is titled, “Putin Warns ‘Globalist Terrorist’ Klaus Schwab His ‘Days Are Numbered.’” The caption in the viral post is adapted from the first paragraph of this article. 

The article states that Putin delivered a speech on October 5, 2023, at the plenary session of the 20th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi. It claims that Putin referred to Schwab and his close advisors as “legitimate military targets” because they have allegedly been actively attempting to seize power illegally through a globalist coup d’etat.

We accessed the English transcript of Putin’s speech published by the Russian presidential office and the Valdai Club and found no such statements as those attributed to him on social media. Putin did not refer to Schwab as a “global terrorist,” nor did he state that Schwab’s "days are numbered." In fact, Putin did not mention Schwab or the WEF at all during his speech. Instead, Putin spoke about the war with Ukraine, cooperation with China, and other topics.

We found no news reports referring to such comments by Putin. At the time of the October 2023 plenary, several news outlets had covered Putin’s speech. However, none reported any such comments.

Valdai Discussion Club is a Moscow-based think tank that hosts Russian and foreign journalists, politicians, and scientists every year. The 2023 edition of the annual meeting took place between October 2 and October 5.

The People's Voice is known for publishing false and unverified articles and has previously also made false comments about Schwab and political leaders as well. Logically Facts has debunked similar People's Voice articles multiple times. 

The verdict

Russian President Putin did not call Klaus Schwab a "global terrorist." The viral post originated from an article that fabricated comments and falsely attributed them to Putin. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.