Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky have been focal points of the majority of news coverage by global media. The duo has dominated the social media platforms too. Going with the flow, several social media users shared a video of Putin claiming that the Russian President “announced to veto the issue of Gilgit provisional province in the Security Council.” Newschecker has found the claim to be untrue.
In the 30-second video, Russian President Vladimir Putin can be heard speaking Russian with English subtitles that read, “I clarified during my speech at UNSC that Gilgit Baltistan should be part of India, Russia does not support Pakistani initiative to create Gilgit as a provisional province. PM Imran Khan came to Moscow to convince me on the issue. He talked about bringing a gas and oil pipeline from Russia to Pakistan through China and Gilgit. It is not a viable idea as Pakistan is occupier in Gilgit…”
Twitter users expressed their appreciation for Putin while sharing the video.
The clip is doing the rounds on Facebook too.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan was on a two-day visit to Russia, when Putin announced ‘military operations’ in Ukraine on February 24. The two leaders met at the Kremlin last week with the Russian government describing Khan’s tour as a “working visit”. “The leaders of the two countries discussed the main aspects of bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on current regional topics, including developments in South Asia,” said the brief statement from the Russian presidency.
Also Read: Photo Claiming Putin warns India against interfering in the Russia-Ukraine War Is Edited
Fact Check/Verification
We carefully analysed the clip and spotted ‘Poccnr24’ written in the upper right side of the frame of the video. ‘Poccnr24’, also known as ‘Russia 24’, is a government news channel that broadcasts in Russian language. Taking a clue, we scanned through the official YouTube channel of ‘Poccnr24’ and found a video of Putin uploaded on February 28, 2022 with the title which roughly translates to ‘Putin called a meeting on economic issues.’
As per the video’s description, “Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting on the economy proposed to discuss the sanctions that the “empire of lies” of the West is trying to implement. Putin stressed that he had previously discussed this topic with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin”
8 seconds into the video, we found visuals matching our keyframes taken from the clip going viral with the claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced to veto the issue of Gilgit provisional province in the Security Council. However, the video uploaded by Poccnr24 didn’t have any English subtitles.
We continued our investigation and found a YouTube video uploaded on the official channel of Guardian News on February 27, 2022 with the title ‘Vladimir Putin puts Russian nuclear forces on high alert,’ with English subtitles. We carefully analysed the 47-second video, however Putin didn’t mention anything about India, Pakistan, Gilgit or Veto. In the video, Putin ordered his military to put the country’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert in response to ‘aggressive statements’ by NATO countries.
We found the same video was uploaded on the official YouTube channel of RT on February 27, 2022. The description of the video read, “President Vladimir Putin placed the country’s strategic deterrence forces on “special” alert on Sunday, announcing the move during a meeting with Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.”
We carefully read the English subtitles in the video and found no mention of Gilgit in the whole video.
Conclusion
The English subtitles in the viral video are edited and the video is misleading people into believing that Putin supports India’s stance on the Gilgit Baltistan issue.
Result: Manipulated/Altered Media
Sources
Self Analysis
YouTube Channels Of Poccnr24, Guardian News & RT
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
