MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. The falsification of a video featuring Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova can be easily confirmed even without sophisticated software, Lily Ong, a Singapore-based geopolitics and cybersecurity analyst and an expert with the Global Fact-Checking Network, told TASS.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the video circulating online, which shows Zakharova purportedly commenting on Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s meetings during the 80th UN General Assembly session, as a deepfake.

"This is lip sync technology combined with synthetic voice technology — but truth be told, it’s getting a bit old," Lily Ong said. "Beyond the lips, subtle facial muscle shifts and micro-expressions integral to natural speech and emotional depth would clue us in on this being a fake even in the absence of sophisticated detection software."

The deepfake technology in the Zakharova footage has been detected by the Zephyr system. Its developers told TASS that the video was fabricated using "lip sync technology combined with synthetic voice technology". The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that not a single word in the deepfake was true and provided a comparison with the original clip for illustrative purposes.