The Russian President visited India on 4 and 5 December 2025 for the 23rd India–Russia Annual Summit (here, here and here). In this context, a video (here, here, here and here) has gone viral on social media that supposedly shows him seated inside an aircraft, looking out the window at escort fighter jets. The claim suggests that Indian Air Force jets were escorting his plane as it entered Indian airspace. Let’s investigate the truth behind this video.
Claim: The viral video shows Indian Air Force fighter jets escorting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aircraft as he enters Indian airspace during his recent visit to India.
Fact: The video is from December 2017 and shows Russian Su-30 fighter jets escorting President Putin’s aircraft during his visit to the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. Hence, the claim is FALSE.
To find the truth, we performed a reverse image search on Google, which led us to the similar visuals shared by several social media handles, including RIA Novosti (here, here and here). We also found the images published by Getty Images. All these posts date back to December 2017 and state that Russian President Vladimir Putin was landing at the Khmeimim Air Base in western Syria for a visit, where his aircraft was escorted by Su-35 fighter jets.
A side-by-side comparison of the viral video and visuals from Vladimir Putin’s December 2017 visit to Syria confirms that both show the same footage.
Further searches led us to multiple news reports from December 2017, all featuring visuals similar to the viral video and images (here, here and here). According to the official website of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin visited the Khmeimim Air Base in western Syria, where he was received by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and senior Russian military officials. Other news reports also confirm that his aircraft was escorted by Russian Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets.
Additionally, we searched for any credible reports about Indian fighter jets escorting Vladimir Putin during his recent visit to India, but found none. This further confirms that the viral video has no connection with his recent India visit.
To sum up, a 2017 video of Russian fighter jets escorting President Putin during his visit to Syria is being falsely shared as visuals from his recent visit to India.
