ITAR-TASS revives the Warsaw Pact

APR 01 1996

In 1996 the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported as an April Fools' story that the Russian parliament was debating whether to revive the Warsaw Pact. The report was immediately repeated by state news agencies in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria and broadcast on national radio in each country at least twice, causing widespread alarm before ITAR-TASS admitted the joke and apologised.