Claim: Russian President Vladimir Putin told the media that he would “visit Pakistan to sign a major oil pipeline deal”.
Fact: Vladimir Putin did not tell the media he will visit Pakistan to sign an oil pipeline deal.
Fact vs Fiction
On 27 February, a video of Vladimir Putin speaking to the press in Russian was shared on various social media platforms with incorrect subtitles that say: “Whoever is saying that Russia is Isolated in Ukraine is lying. This week I hosted the Prime Minister of Pakistan, a brave man. He resisted Western pressure to accept my invitation to visit Russia. We discussed many areas of mutual interest including Afghanistan and trade cooperation and soon I will visit Pakistan to sign a major pipeline deal.”
The video ends with graphics from the UK-based newspaper, The Guardian.
Some pages titled the video with: “Do watch this part of President Putin’s speech. Especially those [of you] who ask what Imran Khan has gained from this visit [to Russia].”
The video was originally published by The Guardian on 25 February with a caption that includes the following: “The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Friday briefed his country’s security council on the invasion of Ukraine … He claimed that most Ukrainian military units have been reluctant to engage with Russian forces and said the units offering resistance are mostly volunteer battalions made up of rightwing Ukrainian nationalists. He offered no evidence for his claims, which could not be independently verified.”
The correct translation can also be seen in the subtitles of the video that say:
“Once again I appeal to the Ukranian soldiers, do not allow neo-Nazis and Banderites to use your children, your wives and elderly as a human shield. Take power into your own hands. It seems that it will be easier for us to come to an agreement (with you) than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who settled in Kyiv and took all ukranian people hostage.”
Putin makes no mention of Pakistan or signing an oil pipeline deal.
Virality
The video has gone viral on social media in Pakistan and is being used by pro-government individuals and pages to claim that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia was successful.
A Facebook search shows that the video appears to be first shared on a Facebook page called Lt Gen Faiz Hameed Fan Club on 27 February 2022 at 5:15 PM Pakistan standard time.
Through a CrowdTangle search, Soch Fact Check found that the video had been shared in 110 posts with a total of 3,226 interactions. This post, shared by a page called IK Victory. has the highest reach with over 11,200 views and 420 shares. The video was shared by a number of other pages as well and can be found here, here, here and here.
The same video with false subtitles has been shared on Twitter here, here, and here. The tweet that got the most traction was by Major MuhammadArif (Retd) with 1,980 retweets, 217 quote tweets, and 4,197 likes.
Conclusion: A video of Putin speaking in Russian is being shared with incorrect subtitles to make it seem like he is praising Prime Minister Khan and stating that he will sign an oil deal with Pakistan. The original video with correct subtitles can be found on The Guardian’s YouTube page.