Claims that the Bulgarian mystic Baba Vanga predicted global conflicts, including a potential world war three in 2026, have been dismissed by experts as fabrications used to fuel online propaganda and conspiracy theories.
Ivan Dramov of the Baba Vanga Foundation, established by the seer's followers, said many attributed predictions were 'absolute lies'. He stressed that Vanga, who died in 1996, focused on personal health issues rather than global cataclysms.
Researchers note that Vanga's supposed prophecies about Russia, including the fall of the Soviet Union and a glorious future, likely originate from Russian writer Valentin Sidorov, who claimed to have met her in the 1970s but left no recordings.
A 2024 report by BIRN Albania found that Vanga's name is frequently used by disinformation outlets to push anti-Nato and anti-EU narratives, often citing Russian media. The mystic's legacy has been co-opted to bolster Kremlin-aligned political narratives online.
