In this video, Putin did not talk about the issues of Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan’s request for money

• Akhil Reddy

A video of Vladimir Putin is being shared on social media with a claim that he said – “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 provisional province……PM Khan asked for money. He wanted to send some Islamic Jihadis here……”. In the video, Putin speaks in Russian. However, the imposed subtitles on the video show the claims made in the post. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.

Claim: Video of Putin talking on the issues of Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan’s request for money.

Fact: In the video, Putin spoke about the recent sanctions imposed by the Western countries on Russia. There was neither a mention of Pakistan nor Gilgit-Baltistan. The subtitles do not convey the actual meaning of the words spoken by Putin in Russian. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.

The logo of ‘Россия 24’ can be seen on the posted video. So, when searched for the video on the YouTube channel of ‘Россия 24’ with some keywords, the same video was found to be uploaded on 28 February 2022 with the title – “Putin called a meeting on economic issues” (translated into English). While the audio is the same, the subtitles (auto-translation of the video) were different from the video in the post.

Various reputed new agencies have posted the same videos with the proper translation of Putin’s statements. They can be watched here, here, and here. He spoke about the recent sanctions imposed by the Western countries on Russia. There was neither a mention of Pakistan nor Gilgit-Baltistan.

Also, there are no news reports of Putin making those statements. However, when Pakistan PM Imran Khan met Putin recently, it was reported that Khan raised the issue of Kashmir before him. In February 2022, the ‘Russian Embassy in India’ said – “the Russian official position on the issue of Kashmir and Russia’s principled stance on non-interference in bilateral disputes remain unchanged. The solution should be found between India and Pakistan only, and it should be based on the achieved agreements, including the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999.”

To sum it up, in the video being shared on social media, Putin spoke about the recent sanctions imposed by the Western countries on Russia, not on the issues of Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan’s request for money.