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| - Fact Check: No, these Russians are NOT protesting America's alleged involvement in Pakistani affairs
Photo of Russian protest in Moscow against the American involvement in Pakistan's Affairs went viral on social media. The India Today Anti Fake News War Room found that the viral photo was digitally altered.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral photo was digitally altered. The original photo was taken on January 23, 2021, when demonstrators gathered at Pushkin Square in Moscow to protest the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny.
Recently, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan alleged that Donald Lu, the top American official dealing with South Asia in the US State Department, was involved in a conspiracy to topple his government. Following this allegation, Russia also criticise the US.
Amid this escalating tension, a photo made the rounds on social media with the claim that Russians were protesting against American involvement in Pakistan’s affairs.
Several social media users shared the photo of a larger crowd holding posters about alleged American interference with claims like, “Protest in Moscow against American involvement in Pakistan Affairs.”
Protest in Moscow against #American involvement in Pakistan Affairs#SupremeCourt #4thApril #PrimeMinisterImranKhan pic.twitter.com/oPWXo68LDt — SumiaIftikhar (@Angryfruity) April 4, 2022
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the viral photo was digitally altered. The original photo was taken on January 23, 2021, when several protestors gathered at Pushkin Square in Moscow protesting against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Archived versions of posts with similar claims can be seen here and here.
AFWA PROBE
While investigating the claim, we ran a reverse search of the image and found the same image in a news report published on January 23, 2021.
The caption with the image stated, “People gather during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Pushkin square at the statue of Alexander Pushkin in the background in Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 23, 2021.
A closer look at the original photo and the viral photo revealed that while both photos were the same, the posters held by people in the viral photo were different. The posters in the original image carried text and photos related to Navalny. In the viral one, the posters looked digitally altered — their quality appeared to be of a lower resolution, as compared to the rest of the photo.
We also found the same image with the same caption in other media reports as well.
Hence we can conclude that the claim with this image is misleading. The viral photo was digitally altered. The original photo was taken on January 23, 2021, when demonstrators gathered at Pushkin Square in Moscow to protest the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny.
(With inputs from Sanjana Saxena in Lucknow)
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