Fact Check: Edited video shows Putin supporting India's stance on Gilgit Baltistan issue

In the video, Mr. Putin can be heard speaking Russian. The subtitles 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…"

The video is being shared on Twitter. Click here and here to see some posts.

Fact Check

The claim is misleading.

NewsMeter spotted the text "Poccnr24" on the upper right side of the video. Poccnr24 is a government news channel that broadcasts in Russian.

Taking a cue from this, we searched the official YouTube channel of Poccnr24 and found a video of Mr. Putin uploaded on 28 February 2022. The title roughly translates to "Putin called a meeting on economic issues."

The video description read, "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."

Eight seconds into the video, we found visuals matching the keyframes taken from the viral clip that is being shared on social media claiming that Mr. Putin has 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 found another YouTube video uploaded on the official channel of Guardian News on 27 February 2022 with the title "Vladimir Putin puts Russian nuclear forces on high alert". It had English subtitles. We carefully analysed the 47-second video but Putin didn't mention anything about India, Pakistan, or Gilgit.

In the video, Putin ordered his military to put the country's nuclear deterrence forces on high alert in response to the "aggressive statements" by NATO countries.

The same video was also uploaded on the official YouTube channel of RT on 27 February 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."

Hence, the claim that Mr. Putin has supported India's stance on the Gilgit Baltistan issue is false. The viral video of the Russian President with English subtitles is edited and misleading.