Claim: The Russian ambassador to Pakistan Albert P Khorev sent a congratulatory message to former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on his victory in the cipher case.
Fact: The Russian ambassador to Pakistan did not issue any statements congratulating Imran Khan on his acquittal in the cipher case. No such news was reported by any credible media outlets. Even though the Embassy of Russia in Islamabad confirmed that they are “closely following the developments in Pakistan”, they have not issued any official statement which supports the claim of the congratulatory message.
On 3 June 2024, X (formerly Twitter) account World Observer (@GlobalWObserver) claimed that the Russian ambassador to Pakistan Albert P. Khorev congratulated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on his acquittal in the cipher case.
The post is captioned,
“BREAKING NEWS .
Russian ambassador to Pakistan sent congratulatory Message to former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran khan on the Victory in Cipher case in Islamabad High court.”
Cipher case
On 3 June 2024, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) acquitted PTI founder Imran Khan in the cipher case. Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb announced their decision after accepting the appeal filed by Khan against his earlier convictions.
The court’s order stipulated his immediate release unless detained in other cases. However, he is not expected to be released yet; Imran Khan remains incarcerated due to his sentence in the Iddat case, which is now under a different judge.
Since his ouster, former premier Khan has repeatedly mentioned a cipher as evidence of a conspiracy to remove his government.
The purported cipher, sent to Islamabad in 2022 by Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, recounted a meeting involving US State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, and Pakistani envoy Asad Majeed Khan.
US-based publication The Intercept, claimed to have obtained a copy of the cable, and reproduced its contents on 9 August 2023, which suggest that the US had raised objections to Imran Khan’s foreign policy regarding the Ukraine conflict and pressured the Pakistani establishment to remove him.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false. The Embassy of Russia in Islamabad stated in an X post on 4 June that it is “closely following the developments in Pakistan, including the political situation and court decisions.”
“However, we believe that it is up to the Pakistani people to react to and comment on these developments,” the post added.
The post lacked specific context, but does not indicate anywhere that the embassy or the ambassador sent congratulatory messages to Khan. But some users in the comments linked it to former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s legal battle, while others were “astonished” by such a statement from the official social media account of the Russian embassy.
Soch Fact Check could not find any official statement by the embassy or the Russian ambassador in support of Imran Khan or one that congratulated him on his acquittal in the cipher case on their official social media channels. Moreover, no credible media outlets reported any such statements either.
Virality:
The claim was posted here, here and here on Facebook.
On X, the tweet by @GlobalWObserver gained significant traction with 5,866 views, 376 likes and 138 reposts.
Conclusion: The Russian ambassador to Pakistan, Albert P. Khorev did not congratulate Imran Khan on his acquittal in the cipher case. The Russian embassy has confirmed that they are monitoring developments in Pakistan but did not issue any statements specifically regarding Khan’s acquittal. No credible media reports support the claim either.
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