Morphed photo shows Vladimir Putin sitting in a Hyderabad street

Hyderabad: A photo of a man who slightly resembles Russian President Vladimir Putin is circulating on WhatsApp. It is being claimed that the photo shows the Russian President sitting in Barkas, Hyderabad.

The man in the photo can be seen wearing a patterned lungi and pink shirt and sitting next to a closed shutter in a dirty street.

NewsMeter received the photo on WhatsApp with the caption, “President Putin spotted in Barkas, Hyderabad.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the photo has been digitally altered.

On performing a reverse image search, we found the original photo on the website Dreams Time. The original photo shows a different man who has a moustache.

The image is dated 12 January 2015 and is titled “Indian man with mustache sits next to closed store in dirty empty street in brown patterned lungi and pink shirt.”

We also found the original photo on the image stock website iStock published on 1 September 2015. This photo also shows a different man with a moustache.

We noticed two differences and two similarities between the original and the morphed photos.

· The original photo shows a different man with a moustache.

· The original photo also shows the man wearing the same lungi and pink shirt and sitting next to a closed shutter in a dirty street, as seen in the morphed photo.

Here is the comparison between the original and the morphed photos.

We conclude that the viral photo of a man resembling Russian President Vladimir Putin has been digitally created. Hence, the claim that it shows Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting in Barkas, Hyderabad is misleading.