Koi UFO Video 093 : Small alien in snow in Siberia
[DEBUNKED]Koi UFO Video 093 appears to show someone leading a cameraman to the site of an alien body lying on top of snow near Irkutsk in Siberia.
Copies of this video had over 6 million views in their first few days on Youtube in 2011 and featured in media item around the world, including on the websites of various newspapers here in England (including The Daily Mail and The Telegraph).
In fact, as discussed below, the "alien" in this video was made by two Russians (Ivan Baturin and Artem Fedotov) out of plasticine and dough with a chicken skin stretched over it. Atrem Fedotov is seen in the video, which was filmed by the Ivan Baturin. Ivan Baturin and Artem Fedotov subsequently admitted the hoax and demonstrated on Russian television how they made the "alien" and where they filmed their video. A considerable amount of material relating to this hoax (including various Russian news reports detailing the admission of the hoax) has very helpfully been collated and translated by Yvan Defoy but those efforts appear to have largely gone unnoticed. Various copies of the relevant video continue to circulate online.
Incidentally, this video provides an example of an apparently hoaxed admission of a hoax. Some media reports uncritically reported that the hoax had been admitted by Timur Hilall and Kirill Vlasov but neither of those individuals looked anything like the individual seen in the video. This may be contrasted with the position in relation to the subsequent admission of a hoax by Ivan Baturin and Artem Fedotov, discussed below.
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
3. The real background to this video
4. Relevant online discussions
1. The relevant video
The video appears to show some sort of alien being in snow.
Screen shots from the video are included below for ease of identification:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
Copies of this video had over 6 million views in their first few days on Youtube in 2011 and featured in media item around the world, including on the websites of various newspapers here in England (including The Daily Mail and The Telegraph).
The brief early item on the website of The Telegraph newspaper is fairly typical of initial media reports in that it simply reported the fact that the video had received approximately 700,000 views and discussion of it online
"The video, which many viewers have dismissed as an elaborate hoax, was allegedly filmed near the town of Irkutsk close to Russia’s Lake Baikal in recent weeks.
In it, a local is shown leading a camera man to a snowy spot on the edge of a forest where he points out the remains of “the alien,” a tiny being which has had one of its legs ripped off. The creature looks like an extra from Hollywood central casting with an enlarged cranium, hollow eyes, and a small reddish body.
One of the men in the video is heard giving an expletive-laden commentary in Russian, adding that a dog originally sniffed “the alien” out.
The video has sparked conspiracy theories of an alien crash landing in the area. Alleged UFO sightings in the vicinity are not uncommon, and some viewers speculated that the Russian military had not cleaned up the area after a UFO crash properly overlooking the tiny corpse."
This video provides an example of an apparently hoaxed admissions of a hoax. Some media reports uncritically reported that the hoax had been admitted by Timur Hilall and Kirill Vlasov but neither of those individuals looked anything like the individual seen in the video. This may be contrasted with the position in relation to the subsequent admission of a hoax by Ivan Baturin and Artem Fedotov, discussed below. For example, the website of The Daily Mail newspaper published an article which included the following:
"We said it was too good to be true and, sadly, it was.
The students behind the discovery of an alien’s body at a UFO ‘crash site’ have admitted that it was a ‘crummy’ hoax made out of stale bread.
Friends Timur Hilall, 18, and Kirill Vlasov, 19, shot the video that showed the alien’s mangled remains frozen in snow in Irkutsk, Siberia.
The pair were questioned by police over their ‘extraterrestrial discovery’ but admitted to their stunt.
But not before their creation became an internet sensation, drawing almost 700,000 hits on YouTube.
Their find was deemed serious enough for the Kremlin to get involved and a spokesman from the Russian interior ministry confirmed the hoax.
‘We found the alien in one of the student’s homes,’ he said.
‘It was lying under his bed and an examination of it revealed it had been made of bread crumbs which were covered in chicken skin.’"
3. The real background to this video
In fact, the "alien" in this video was made by two Russians (Ivan Baturin and Artem Fedotov) out of plasticine and dough with a chicken skin stretched over it.
Ivan Baturin and Artem Fedotov subsequently admitted the hoax and demonstrated on Russian television how they made the "alien" and where they filmed their video.
A considerable amount of material relating to this hoax (including various Russian news reports detailing the admission of the hoax) has very helpfully been collated and translated by Yvan Defoy on his website and a Youtube playlist but those efforts appear to have largely gone unnoticed. His Youtube playlist includes various videos of Russian television news reports about the hoax, including various interviews with Ivan Baturin and Artem Fedotov (pictured below). I have drawn heavily upon those helpful translations of relevant videos below.
Atrem Fedotov is seen in the video, which was filmed by the Ivan Baturin.
Here is a picture of Artem Fedotov from one of the videos in which he was interviewed about the hoax:
That picture of Artem Fedotov can be compared with images of the man in the video of the "alien":
The various Russian TV news videos in Yvan Defoy's Youtube playlist regarding this hoax include several videos of Ivan Baturin (pictured below) discussing how he made and filmed the "alien" video.
In short, Ivan Baturin made the head of the "alien" out of plasticine. When he ran out of plasticine, he made some dough which he used for the body of the "alien". He then put chicken skin over the "alien", which helps give it the organic look apparent in the video. That organic appearance is more convincing than many basic CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) "alien" video, may explain why this video got so many views upon its release in 2011.
Videos and photographs of "aliens" which used physical models have tended to have more popularity and more long-lasting debates than images created solely using a computer. This position may be contrasted with "UFO" videos, where the reverse is true. My personal view is that computer imagery has so far been better at creating inorganic "UFO" vehicles which can fool the human eye than it has been at creating organic "alien" beings.
Ivan Baturin is pictured below demonstrating how he created the "alien" head out of plasticine.
Ivan Baturin is pictured below demonstrating how he made dough for the "alien" body.
Ivan Baturin and Artem Fedotov are pictured below showing a reporter the site at which they placed the "alien" body.
The "alien" video hoax provoked some interested from local police. They seised the relevant model "alien" and considered a potential prosecution of the hoaxers. The police subsequently talked about the hoax (pictured below).
The police also showed reporters the seised model "alien", complete with wires and matchsticks (pictured below).
Further details of this hoax and related Russian news coverage can be found on Yvan Defoy's website and in the translated videos of Russian television news reports on his a Youtube playlist. The videos from that playlist are embedded below for ease of reference.
4. Relevant online discussions
Relevant discussions on the AboveTopSecret.com forum include the following:
**2011 (April) discussion entitled "alien crash footage near Irkutsk"
2011 (April) discussion entitled "**Siberian 'Alien' WAS a hoax made out of loaf: ET is brown bread*, literally:"
2011 (April) discussion entitled "Picture of 'Dead Alien' In Russia !!!!!"
2011 (April) discussion entitled "Dead Alien filmed in Russia"
2011 (April) discussion entitled "New alien found"