Illustration: Truthmeter.mk

This article was first published by Truthmeter.mk (North Macedonia), within the framework of Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Project.

The theory that Putin is fighting against Satanists to save the planet from the so-called deep state is yet another QAnon conspiracy theory. This was even fueled by Putin himself, who justified the invasion of Ukraine as a fight against Satanists. It is not true that the military invasion of Ukraine is to cleanse it of Satanists who supposedly control some kind of deep state. What is happening in Ukraine is a military invasion carried out by Russia, where human lives are lost every day, and Ukraine is forced to defend itself against Putin’s military aggression

We analyze a post on the social network Threads which says:

Putin is the messiah whom the whole world has been waiting for for centuries to save the planet from the Satanists, whose plan is to reduce the world’s population to 500 million from the current 7 billion, and to establish a new slave-owning system in which they would rule, and humans would have only the right to bare life and the obligation to work solely to increase their wealth.

The conspiracy theory of some kind of Satanists, some deep state, and some kind of depopulation plan is a well-known theory that Truthmeter.mk has written about on several occasions and is a product of the QAnon movement. According to this theory, a small, undefined group of politicians controls the world and intends harm to the majority of the population, plotting depopulation, and engaging in pedophilia.

As for the mention of a plan to reduce the world population to 500 million, it is a conspiracy theory, not a substantiated fact. There is no evidence, that is, no reliable source (scientific, journalistic, or official) has shown that there is a global plan for massive population reduction.

This figure (500 million) is often associated with the so-called Georgia Guidestones, a monument erected in the United States in the 1980s with inscriptions about “keeping humanity under 500 million in balance with nature.” However, that is a statement by an individual, there is no official document or plan.

In this context, there is the “golden billion” conspiracy theory, which Truthmeter.mk has also written about. According to it, some world elite wants to seize resources and wealth for themselves, leaving the rest of the planet’s inhabitants to suffer poverty and hunger.

This conspiracy theory is often advocated in speeches by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as by other senior Kremlin officials, as a line of attack on the West as the war in Ukraine unfolds.

In that context, Putin, in July 2022, in a speech in Moscow said:

The model of total dominance of the so-called golden billion is unfair.

Immediately afterwards he asked:

Why should this golden billion of all the population on the globe dominate over everyone and impose its own rules of behavior?

This theory that Putin is fighting Satanists to save the planet from the so-called “deep state” is another QAnon conspiracy theory. It was also promoted by Putin himself, who justified his invasion of Ukraine as a fight against Satanists.

Some social media users believe that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine to destroy the “deep state,” a nonexistent world government. However, this is not true. Putin has long believed that democratic nations should be under Russian control, a view that led to an outright aggressive military invasion of Ukraine that resulted in thousands of casualties. However, in a polarized world with distrust of real facts, disinformation spreads rapidly.

At the other end of the spectrum of disinformation about the reasons for the military invasion of Ukraine is the claim that QAnon supporters celebrate Putin’s invasion of Ukraine because they believe it is an operation against the deep state. They are attached to the fantasy that a cabal of powerful pedophiles and Satanists, including high-ranking Democrats, runs the deep state.

The narrative that the military invasion of Ukraine is humanity’s salvation from the Satanists of the deep state has persisted online since the invasion began and has been promoted by QAnon circles. They falsely claim that the war is not a war but a “necessary purge of the cabal and their operations and is not an attack on innocent civilians.”

It is not true that the military invasion of Ukraine is intended to purge Satanists who supposedly run a deep state. There is a military invasion in Ukraine carried out by Russia, where human lives are lost every day, and Ukraine is forced to defend itself from Putin’s military aggression. Since the beginning of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, QAnon supporters have supported Russia’s narratives that attempt to justify the aggression, and France 24 claims that Chinese support is also involved.

Of course, this is propaganda, that is, a bunch of unsubstantiated, unproven, and unsupported claims, which collectively contribute to creating an illusion that is meant to deceive the public.

The fact is that the world’s population is growing, not shrinking, and this is proof that there are no globalists who are reducing the population. Currently (2025) there are more than 8 billion people on the planet. According to the United Nations, by 2050 the number will increase to about 9.7 billion. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the world population in 2024 was about 8.2 billion people. Projections show that the population will continue to grow for several more decades and will reach a possible peak of about 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s.

From all of the above, we can conclude that the post we are analyzing is untrue.