The Tarcísio administration was the source of the grotesque fake news used by CNN and replicated by Nikolas Ferreira to attack President Lula.
The Palácio dos Bandeirantes (São Paulo state government headquarters) claims to have been approached by Ukrainian representatives willing to invest US$50 billion in Brazil – figures completely out of context.
247 - The source of a grotesque fake news story, reported by CNN and replicated by Congressman Nikolas Ferreira The attack on President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came from the government of São Paulo, led by Tarcísio de Freitas. According to the "news" report, the Russian-Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer Antonov had abandoned its US$50 billion investment plan in Brazil because President Lula was not being sufficiently "neutral" in his positions regarding the war in Ukraine.
The news is false for obvious reasons. Nowhere in the world has any multinational company announced a $50 billion investment. Recent major industrial investment projects are in the range of $10 billion, such as a Tesla project in Mexico and a Volkswagen project in Spain. This week, there was an announcement of a $14 billion project, also by Volkswagen, for a... large battery factory in Canada.
Therefore, any minimally experienced journalist would have known that the information about Antonov was false. Furthermore, such an amount represents no less than 25% of the GDP of Ukraine, a war-torn country that has received international aid to purchase weapons but has made no investment outside its borders. Not to mention the fact that Antonov is a Russian-Ukrainian state-owned company with no international presence.
However, despite all the evidence that it was a major setup, the Palácio dos Bandeirantes (São Paulo state government headquarters) came to CNN's aid this Wednesday. The broadcaster's website published a statement from the São Paulo state government. Regarding the case, the São Paulo State Secretariat for International Affairs informs that, on April 11th, it received representatives of Oleksandr Nykonenko and Victor Avdeyev, advisor and vice-president of the Antonov Company, for a meeting regarding the interest of the Ukrainian state-owned company Antonov in developing activities in Brazil, especially in the State of São Paulo. “According to the representatives, the company has an investment plan of US$ 50 billion over five years.” Subsequently, the participants of the meeting contacted the government via email, informing that “in light of the latest statements from the Federal Government, Antonov has decided to suspend negotiations.”
The statement from the São Paulo state government, in practice, only indicates that the Palácio dos Bandeirantes (São Paulo state government headquarters) was the source of an absurd fake news story created to undermine President Lula and fuel misinformation in the so-called professional media and on social networks. "In the Brazilian political debate, unfortunately, the truth has gone out the window." "This afternoon, lawyer Pedro Serrano told TV 247.".