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Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022

Did Kari Lake use footage of Russian troops and claim it was the Arizona National Guard in a political ad?

Jordan Gerard, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
yes

In an ad about "standing with border troops" and "deploying the National Guard to secure the border," Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s campaign appears to have used zoomed in video footage of marching Russian soldiers.

The soldiers featured are not members of the National Guard, as the ad suggests. The uniforms do not match U.S. National Guard uniforms, which do not include yellow sashes or white gloves. 

The clip, offered by image site Shutterstock, is labeled as a victory parade conducted on June 24, 2020, in Novosibirsk, Russia, with "marching parade officers with firearm kalashnokov ak 47 in hand."

Lake’s campaign did not respond to media outlets about the footage.

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.

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