This photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office with the portrait of Ambedkar is morphed - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 2, 2021
A photo through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin hung a photo of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in his office. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office with the portrait of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
Fact: The photo is morphed from an image where the President usually chairs the security council sessions of Russia. In several other similar images, the portrait seen is the State Seal of the Russian Federation. There are no evidence to conclude that a portrait of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is hung in Putin’s office, which is the meeting place of the Security Council in the Moscow Kremlin’s Senate building. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When reverse image search is done on the photo, a similar image was found in an article on the official website of the President of Russia. The article dated 27 November 2001, is titled, “Vladimir Putin chaired a Security Council session”. According to the caption of the image, the President of Russia was chairing a security council session. There are different articles during different time periods in the same office setting (similar image backgrounds), which can be seen here, here, and here. However, the only major difference in all these images is that there is no portrait of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
When the viral image is compared with the similar images found on the official website of the President of Russia, one can see that the image of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had been digitally added. The viral photo had been morphed. The portrait which is seen in all these images is actually the State Seal of the Russian Federation.
The office seen in the photos is the meeting place of the Security Council in the Moscow Kremlin’s Senate building. In Russia, the security council was formed in 1992 and, the security council office is a separate department of the Presidential executive office; its status within the Presidential Executive Office is that of a directorate. There is no evidence to conclude that a portrait of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is in this meeting place.
The same picture went viral earlier which was then debunked by multiple organizations here & here.
To sum it up, this photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office with the portrait of Ambedkar is morphed.