On the 1st of May 2011, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news network broadcasted images of an enormous demonstration in Moscow in solidarity with Syrian democrats, calling for the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad. Muscovites in the crowd interviewed by news channel, sternly condemned “a regime which sheds the blood of its own people.”
In fact, Al-Jazeera had planted actors in the crowd of May Day demonstrators in order to produce the fake report. There never was a protest rally against Bashar al-Assad in Moscow. Quite the contrary, the preeminent Russian leaders have persistently expressed their support for the Syrian president and the Russian ambassador to the Security Council foiled a resolution proposal put forward by the United States.
The May Day demonstration in Moscow drew approximately 40 000 people. It was disturbed only by the foray of some one hundred gays and by the pelting of eggs and mayonnaise at the new mayor of the capital city.