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| - Fact Check: This video of Putin taking traditional Epiphany ice bath is old, not from 2022
Amid reports of Russian President Vladimir Putin's deteriorating health, a video has surfaced showing him taking a dip on the occasion of Epiphany in icy-cold waters.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral video is not from Putin’s recent Epiphany ice-bathing as claimed but from 2018. He is reported to have participated this year as well but there are no photos or videos of that.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's health has been a topic of discussion across the world, especially since the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022. Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine’s intelligence chief claimed that Putin was terminally ill with cancer and his health was declining.
Amid this, a video making the rounds on social media shows Putin enjoying traditional Orthodox Epiphany ice-bathing. Worshippers across Russia and Eastern Europe have been braving icy waters for Epiphany, a Christian holiday. People shared this video writing, “The Western media reports every week that Vladimir Vladimirovich has some kind of terminal illness. Meanwhile, this week Putin enjoyed the traditional Epiphany ice bathing.” An archived version of such claims can be seen here and here.
AFWA’s investigation found that the viral video is more than five years old.
AFWA PROBE
A reverse search of the keyframes from the viral clip led us to a YouTube video uploaded by American news outlet CBS News on January 19, 2018. The video report was titled, “Russian President Putin takes an icy dip on Epiphany”.
Taking a clue from this, we searched and found that the same video shared by many other international media organisations including FOX News and Euronews. This makes it clear that the video was not from this year's Epiphany but from 2018.
It is worth to be mention that there were news reports by several media outlets from all over the globe about the Russian President’s deteriorating health conditions before this year’s Orthodox Epiphany. Following this, there was speculation that he might not take part in Epiphany dip this year.
To dig further into this, we thoroughly checked Russian news outlets to find if there’s a photo or video of Putin taking the traditional dip from this year’s Epiphany. We found a report by the Russian state-owned news agency TASS. It reported, "The president took part in Epiphany bathing. He did it outside Moscow," Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Putin "followed his own tradition." The spokesman specified that "there is no photo or video footage" this year.
(Written by Ashish Kumar)
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