May 13, 2025

By Jane Fryer

There’s a video doing the rounds. It is about 15 seconds long, has caused a hell of a stir and was filmed on Saturday night on the late train from Poland to Ukraine.

In it, three middle-aged men in knitwear are sitting around a highly polished conference table, smiling.

One is Sir Keir Starmer, relaxed in a navy zippy. Across the table in lavender blue is the brand new German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. And between them, crisp white shirt under navy cardy, is Emmanuel Macron, the 47-year-old president of France.

They are en route to peace talks in Kyiv with President Zelensky and Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, and look remarkably cheerful and smiley as the cameras enter the room.

Some – and let’s be very clear here, we’re talking either pro-Russian conspiracy theorists or mad MAGA fanatics – say they seem almost too jolly. As if they’re having too good a time. Or perhaps have something to hide.

Because… hang on a minute, what’s that white thing by Macron’s water glass? Is it a white bag of something?

It’s hard to tell as, quick as a flash, he grabs and shoves it under his elbow.

And what is 69-year-old Merz doing with that little white stick – is he hiding it guiltily out of sight in his palm?

Golly gosh! Could something utterly mad and reckless be going on here?

Could these three previously upstanding leaders of the Western world really have decided to have a (not so) private cocaine party while preparing for peace talks in the train’s conference saloon?

There have been plenty on social media who seem to think so. That perhaps the three men thought a quick perker-upper might help them better focus on the small print in the thick blue folders on the table.

Or that maybe Merz, a grandfather of seven, just wanted to let his hair down after one of the bumpiest weeks of his political career.

Or – who knows – could they all have been so sick of being labelled ‘boring’ that, just for once, they decided to live it up for a crazy hour or so, before buckling back down to another long day of international diplomacy?

Oh stop it!

Of course it isn’t a gigantic bag of cocaine! You only have to look properly to see it’s a used tissue which Macron didn’t want in the camera shot. And that Merz’s ‘snuff spoon’ is a white plastic coffee stirrer.

All of which will come as no surprise to anyone with half a brain and a dash of common sense.

But that didn’t stop a flurry of pro-Russian social media channels from whizzing the video – along with fake news accusations – round the world at the weekend.

One French-language, pro-Russia account commented: ‘Coke is going to take decisions on the third world war.’

‘Macron, Starmer and Merz caught on video on their return from Kiev. A bag of white powder on the table. Macron quickly pockets it, Merz hides the spoon. No explanation given,’ read one much-shared post.

And there were endless videos spliced together of Macron sniffing and wiping his nose while executing his presidential duties.

All of which, members of US President Donald Trump’s online MAGA community seized upon and shared with gusto. In large part perhaps, to distract from the fact their beloved president has just accepted a $400million plane from Qatar that he says he will be keeping at the end of his term of office.

And then just when it all couldn’t feel much sillier, the ‘coke party’ story was backed up by the Russian foreign ministry.

Spokesman Maria Zakharova claimed on social media: ‘The fate of Europe is being decided by utterly [drug] dependent individuals,’ she wrote. ‘It’s as if the Almighty Himself is lifting the veil on this putrid spectacle.’

Maria echoed a much-repeated Kremlin claim that Zelensky was an ‘unstable cocaine addict’ and insisted a Western diplomat had told her that drug use was totally normal among European leaders.

Bloody hell! What total madness. We all know about Russia’s love for fake news – the endless false news stories circulated on social media by Kremlin-backed accounts.

That Ukraine is responsible for the war. That crazy deepfake video from March 2022 of Zelensky’s enormous head inexpertly attached to someone else’s body, telling his followers to ‘lay down their weapons’. That Putin has the physical age – and musculature – of a young man. The list goes on and on and on.

And if this latest fakery wasn’t quite so crazy – and backed up by Russian officials – it would have been properly funny. After all, it’s hard to think of three individuals less likely to have been chopping out lines on that shiny table. Or of a drug less conducive to calm, thoughtful, negotiating.

But the Elysee Palace did not see the funny side. In fact, officials there were clearly hopping mad.

‘When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs,’ posted the president’s office on X.

‘This fake news is being spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation.’

They also posted a photo of the offending tissue and the words: ‘This is a tissue. For blowing your nose.’ To be fair, poor Macron has been on the receiving end of more than his fair share of conspiracy theories, all of which, the French claim, were either started or encouraged by Russia.

Everything from a long-time cocaine use (which supposedly he shares with Zelensky), to being gay. To being part of a dodgy global finance set-up backed by financier George Soros. To rumours that his wife Brigitte, was born a man.

And French government officials insist it is getting worse and worse.

Earlier this month, they claimed that the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, had ramped up the cyber and social media war it has been waging against the Macron administration since 2017.

It isn’t only France.

Russia’s fake stories are coming thick and fast about anyone and anything and often get traction in dangerous places.

Last year, conspiracy theories claiming that Zelensky used US aid to buy two luxury yachts were repeated by members of US Congress with the result that the US aid package to Ukraine was temporarily stalled, creating devastating results on the front line.

Researchers also warn that Russia is employing an army of AI chatbots to peddle pro-Kremlin falsehoods online.

Researchers also warn that Russia is employing an army of AI chatbots to peddle pro-Kremlin falsehoods online.

Researchers also warn that Russia is employing an army of AI chatbots to peddle pro-Kremlin falsehoods online.

And a recent report revealed that Pravda, a Russian disinformation site which targets Britons, has already posted more than 47,000 English language articles since it was created in November – mostly either undermining support for Ukraine or spreading fake stories about the royal family and senior politicians – and has now expanded into posts in Welsh and Scottish Gaelic.

The real trouble with fake news, of course, is that the madder and crazier it is, the faster it travels. Which means that however blindingly obvious it is that there was never any cocaine, or a snuff spoon, or the merest whiff of a party on that late-night train to Kyiv, the true story will never quite catch up with the fakery.

Particularly if it’s as mundane as a crumpled hanky and a plastic coffee stirrer.

And the real news will often be deflected and buried. Which, this weekend – in case you missed it – was that, after that much-discussed train journey, European leaders in Kyiv challenged Russia, with the threat of ‘massive new sanctions’, to declare a 30-day ceasefire by Monday.

Which, naturally, President Putin rejected.