| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Did Putin enjoy Zelenskyy's comedy performance years ago? No, viral video is doctored
A viral video claims to show Russian President Vladimir Putin enjoying a performance from now-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy several years ago. India Today's AFWA team found the video and the claim utterly false.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
This video was doctored. Two separate video clips were stitched together to make it look like Putin enjoyed Zelenskyy’s performance. The video of Zelenskyy was taken from a 2002 episode of the Russian reality TV show ‘KVN’. The video of Putin in the audience was taken from a 2006 episode of the same show.
Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a video of Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly enjoying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s comedy act from the audience has gone viral on social media.
The short video clip, about 16 seconds long, features a young Zelenskyy performing on stage. It also shows Putin, seated in the audience, smiling.
Several Facebook and Twitter users shared the video clip with captions like, “AS FATE WOULD HAVE IT! The artist-comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, current president of Ukraine, performed in front of Russian President, Vladimir Putin, a few years ago.”
Another Facebook user wrote, “Circa 20 years ago today. Zelenskyy made a joke about Putin while he was in the audience on a Russian comedy show. Putin didn't applaud. Today. Implacable foes.”
The India Today Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) found this video was doctored. Two separate video clips were stitched together to make it look like Putin enjoyed Zelenskyy’s performance.
The viral posts are saved here, here, and here.
AFWA Probe
With the help of InVID and reverse image searches, we found the two original videos that were clubbed together to create the viral video.
We found the video of Zelenskyy performing on the YouTube channel of ‘KVN’. The Russian title of the video reads, “KVN major league 2002”. The original video was more than an hour and a half long. This video was uploaded to the channel in 2012. Putin was not seen even once in the entire duration of the original video.
At the 35:28 mark, we found the exact clip that was used in the viral video.
We found the second part of the video, where Putin can be seen sitting in the audience, in another video on the same YouTube channel, uploaded in 2013. The title of the YouTube video read, “KVN Premier League team - Special project 2006”.
At the 1:07 mark in this video, the viral portion of Putin in the audience could be seen. Here, Putin was reacting to somebody else’s performance — not Zelenskyy’s.
‘KVN’ also known as ‘Club of the Funny and Inventive’ is a popular Russian humour TV show where performers from different regions of Russia as well as former USSR participate and compete.
Zelenskyy, who was a successful actor and comedian before his political career, has reportedly performed several times on ‘KVN’.
The viral clip showing Putin enjoying Zelenskyy’s performance, however, is undeniably false.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)