EUobserver's Mistral warship for Latvia fools Russian state media

APR 02 2015

An EUobserver April Fools' article claimed France, blocked by sanctions from delivering a Mistral-class warship to Russia, would send it to Latvia instead, renamed 'Juncker', registered in Panama for tax purposes and sailing to landlocked Luxembourg. Russian state outlets RIA Novosti, TASS, Interfax and Sputnik reported it as fact on 2 April 2015, an instance of satire penetrating state media in the Baltic information environment.