The internet is flooded with fake news about bears approaching humans: who benefits from scaring the population?

The situation with bears is worsening in Russian regions—there are indeed attacks, isolated cases with human casualties, and mass shootings of bears in retaliation. In some areas, a state of emergency is declared, and reports of bears appearing are numerous.

Our long-time allies, who have been following our activities and defending nature alongside us for years, know the reasons well. We recently succeeded in having major federal media cover these issues: everything is confirmed—hunger in the Russian Taiga and large-scale human interference in the wild. Territories are essentially divided between loggers and hunters—some cut down the taiga, others shoot wild animals, turning wild spaces into a playground for recreational killing. Huge money! Colossal profits. I am not exaggerating; a few years ago, Roslesinforg publicly reported that a third of all publicly accessible forest lands in the country had already been transferred to private hands for organizing sports shooting at 'live targets.' At wild animals.

Moreover, as I have repeatedly written, there is a severe crisis with pine nuts, which form the food base for wild animals—everything is plundered. The Russian Taiga is being looted for cheap export to China! There is nothing left for animals or ecosystems, leading to the degradation of the wild.

So, what is happening now, why are bears approaching humans? Winter is coming, and they vitally need to gain the necessary fat to hibernate. But after the looting of the Russian Taiga by humans and abnormal forest fires, where millions of hectares of forests burned in a season, compounded by drought and the phenomenon of 'false autumn'—there are no harvests, the food base is scarce. Not only is there nothing to eat, but the pressure continues! Right now, the 'pine nut fever'—the remaining pine nuts are being taken from the forests, sports shooting at animals is actively expanding, and logging continues.

We have been saying for years that conflicts will increase if problems are not addressed. We warned that attacks would inevitably increase, with real casualties among both people and animals! But linear shooting in retaliation, as regional authorities are doing now, will NEVER SOLVE the problem. New animals will come to replace the killed ones, and this will continue until they shoot them all.

Regarding the 'excessively growing population' of bears, I have already written in earlier materials. We have NO CONFIRMED population numbers; it is all just bureaucratic speculation. Moreover, the data provided do not match, differ, and a few years ago, the country's security agencies (FSB and the Prosecutor General's Office) publicly declared the massive extermination of bears, a catastrophic decline in numbers, and even the need to include them in the Red Book.

We will discuss this further.

Now about the situation with bears approaching humans and attacks. The fact is that this is DELIBERATELY STIRRED UP and escalated, including through fake news. There is indeed a spread of fakes. The fact is that our quotas for bear shooting have been rapidly increasing for several years in a row; only for the 2025/2026 hunting season, regional authorities signed decrees on quotas for shooting over 45,000 bears! This is an absolute quantitative record for all years. Moreover, the Ministry of Natural Resources has repeatedly tried, in the interests of the hunting lobby, to pass a bill on the LEGALIZATION OF WINTER BEAR HUNTING, that is, shooting them during winter hibernation when they are vulnerable. This is extremely popular; many are willing to pay for 'den hunting,' and the hunting lobby is directly pushing for this.

But the bills have been successfully blocked. Each time, this was accompanied by a massive information campaign against bears, that is, first scaring the population, then increasing shooting quotas, and another attempt to legalize the killing of sleeping bears (they are awakened by fire, driven out, and shot at point-blank range). Moreover, many bears sleep with their cubs in winter and give birth right in the dens. It is IMPOSSIBLE to know if there is a pregnant bear or cubs in the den until the killing.

Thus, there is currently a serious situation with mass fake news about bears. Alongside confirmed data and, unfortunately, real casualties, the information field is being stirred up—I suspect this is done for the same purposes that our officials have been pursuing for many years: the legalization of even more bear shootings in the Russian Taiga.

Duldurga, Zabaykalsky Krai—in September 2026, a photo of a bear allegedly in Duldurga spread through local chats. This caused panic, but it was later revealed that the image was generated by artificial intelligence. This was officially confirmed, and a lawsuit was filed, resulting in a 30,000 ruble fine for the distributor and confiscation of the smartphone.

RT published a large story under the headline 'Sowing Panic,' with several quotes from the material:

'The case of publishing fake images of bears in forest settlement chats is far from isolated. Law enforcement is currently investigating the details of a September 16 internet publication of a neural network-generated image of a wild animal allegedly roaming near villages in the Pervomaisky District (Altai Krai).'

'The photograph is staged and was created as a joke by an excavator-loader driver,' RT reported, quoting Elena Kudashkina, head of the Sannikovsky village council.

'A similar incident occurred in the Kabansky District of Buryatia. There, all signals about bear sightings will be additionally checked due to the spread of false information about bears appearing in settlements. Recently, local residents claimed that a brown predator was wandering near a house in the Southern microdistrict in Selenzhinsk. It was later revealed that there was no bear, and the report came from a minor.'

On September 8, in the Zabaykalsky Krai, a video about a bear entering the village of Ivanovka near Chita was recognized as fake. It was noted that this video had already appeared in other regions: it was presented as footage from the Irkutsk region, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and Kamchatka.'

Please note that this is a major federal media outlet.

I cannot fail to mention a case that surfaced back in April 2026, in the spring. At that time, news was spread in all communities that a bear had mauled six tourists in the Moscow region. There was no incident, moreover, later the same text began to be deliberately spread in different regions of the country—Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Surgut, DPR, and other regions. And the photo was taken from an old 2023 story about a bear in Yakutia. Thus, someone consciously began to stir up and scare the public in a test format back in the spring!

I carefully studied all the data; the internet is indeed flooded with fakes about bears, and someone is doing extensive work to scare the population.

• Gorno-Altaysk, Sadovaya Street. At the end of August 2026, a camera recording allegedly showing a bear on the street spread. Later, the Republic's Central Control Center established that the footage was taken in another region of Russia. So yes, the bear is real, but the location and news are fake.

  
  

• At the same time, panic was stirred in Manzherok, also in the Altai Republic. At the end of August, a video was spread showing a bear allegedly attacking a dog in Manzherok. This also turned out to be fake.

  
  

• Again in the same republic, in the Ongudaysky District, a 'fresh video' was spread showing a bear breaking into a hunting cabin and wrecking it. The information was later confirmed: the video was recorded a year earlier, the bear did indeed come to the hunters and wreck the cabin in the taiga. But this is a completely different situation, and it was pulled out and spread at the end of August! Right during the 'bear hysteria.'

  
  

• Maksimikha, Buryatia—August 25. A news story spread on social media claiming a bear came to people and dragged a dog into the forest. After verification, it was found that this was filmed in a completely different region and at a different time! By the way, note that if a large predator drags away dogs from a leash, it is the first sign of a lack of food base in the wild.

  
  

• In Zeya, Amur Region, from September 4–6, a video was spread showing a bear allegedly tearing apart a dog. After which, the city's head, Andrey Brodyagin, officially reported that the video was old and unrelated to Zeya.

  
  

• In early September in Yakutia, a video with a bear was also spread. It turned out that it was filmed on Kamchatka.

  
  

• Bzerpinsky Cornice, Caucasian Reserve—September 7–8. A version appeared that a bear tore apart a tourist camp and dozens of tents. The Caucasian State Biosphere Reserve officially refuted this version: the tents were damaged by extremely large hail, some the size of a five-ruble coin.

  
  

• Ivanovka near Chita—September 7–8. The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Zabaykalsky Krai officially recognized as fake a video that was presented as a bear entering Ivanovka. It was established that the same video had previously been presented as events in the Irkutsk region, YNAO, and Kamchatka.

  
  

• Bratsk—early September. Amid the real difficult situation with bears, neural network-generated 'photographs' of animals allegedly in Kurchatovsky Log, between the 26th microdistrict and house No. 60 on Mira Street, as well as near residential entrances, appeared. By the way, open satellite maps (Yandex) in the Bratsk area right now and look at the state of the taiga: it has been turned into a chessboard, and in the region, organized crime groups of officials who had been stealing forests for export to China were detained.

  
  

• Ulan-Ude—September 8–9. A very telling case. The administration of the Oktyabrsky District initially spread information about allegedly recorded bears in Tulunja, Istok, 105/111/128th quarters, and other places, after which they officially withdrew the message and apologized: the information was unverified and uncoordinated. As of the morning of September 9, visual contacts with bears directly in the residential areas of the specified districts were not confirmed; reports about Tulunja, Istok, and Shumyatskogo Street were recognized as not corresponding to reality.

  
  

• Berezovy Mys / Firsovo District near Barnaul—September 16–18. A photo of a bear near residential buildings appeared in chats. Because of it, the territory was checked by police, hunters, and local authorities. Cameras and animal protection did not record anything. Then the author of the picture was found: the man admitted that he created the image using a neural network.

  
  

• Maima, Altai Republic—September 17. A video spread showing a bear allegedly in the area of the veterinary station in Maima. The Altai Republic's Central Control Center checked the publication and refuted it: the information turned out to be fake. But note how actively panic was stirred in the Altai Republic at this time.

  
  

• On the same day, September 17, the Ministry of Ecology of Yakutia officially reported an increase in false videos showing bears entering settlements, aggressive behavior, and attacks on people, with a significant portion of such videos being presented as events in Yakutia. Moreover, everything was generated through neural networks and spread massively, simply scaring people!

  
  

• Novaya Bryanya, Buryatia—September 18–21. An image of a bear allegedly on the street of the settlement appeared in a village chat. Specialists responded normally, but it was later revealed that the image was also generated by neural networks.

  
  
• Tobolsk, dormitory on Znamenskogo Street—September 21–22. A photo of a bear allegedly right at the main entrance to the student dormitory was published. The mayor's office checked the EDS, the institute's management, and cameras. The student associated with the image was found, and she also admitted that she generated the image through artificial intelligence.

This is just part of the data I managed to find, but the scaring of the population is indeed happening massively, everywhere, through blatant fakes about bears. As a result, complete chaos!

The fact is, if you want to sow panic, it is enough to use minimal social engineering techniques. You have probably heard the saying 'fear has big eyes'? So, you launch some fakes, provoke scandals and public fear, and then, based on the reaction, people themselves will start spreading rumors. Previously, in villages, people would start winding up and passing on their own fears to each other, but now they generate images and videos through artificial intelligence, creating real chaos.

Moreover, this chaos was immediately exploited, including by adversaries of our country from abroad. While studying the information, an openly planned campaign was discovered claiming that 'bears are massively eating Russians,' and this is being MANIPULATED for political purposes.

Note that we are conducting systematic work to protect the wild, and it is possible to minimally balance the informational background. It is very good that major federal media have joined in and are covering reliable information! Almost all of them use our materials.

For example, on September 17, 2026, when massive fakes were immediately identified in different regions of the country, a major publication and TV channel 'Tsargrad' released a large article under the headline 'The Bear Disease' of Officials Brought Bears to Cities: What Lies Behind the Death of People from Wild Animals.'

Journalists from the publication also quoted me, published reliable information about the reduction of the food base in the wild, and analyzed the problem with expert comments.

This means our struggle is yielding results! Do not let chaos engulf our society, comrades, pass on the information—be the voice of the Russian Taiga.

© PAVEL PASHKOV