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| - Fact Check: Putin WASN'T reading Imran Khan's book, viral pic is photoshopped!
This image shows Russian President Vladimir Putin reading a book by former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
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India Today Fact Check
This image is doctored. The original image dates back to June 14, 2016, and shows Putin reading a different book.
A photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin reading a book that features former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on its cover has been shared widely on social media. Another book on the table can also be seen featuring Khan on its cover.
The book Putin appears to be reading is “Pakistan: A Personal History”, Khan’s 2011 memoir. The book on the table appears to be “Let There Be Justice: The Political Journey of Imran Khan,” BJ Sadiq’s 2017 biography of the cricketer-turned-politician.
Supporters of Khan shared the photo ( https://bit.ly/3Iv8lJ3 ) with Urdu captions like: "The world reads Imran Khan and we are very lucky to have a leader like him." An archived version of such a post can be seen here.
AFWA's probe has found that the viral image was doctored.
AFWA Probe
A simple reverse image search of the viral image led us to the original one uploaded to the stock photo website Alamy. Uploaded on June 14, 2016, this photo showed Putin holding a book with a brown cover. Per Alamy’s description, it showed Putin reviewing a book during a meeting with President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov and Director of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organisations Mikhail Kotyukov at the Kremlin.
A comparison between this photo and the viral one made it clear that the covers of Khan’s memoir and biography were photoshopped into the 2016 photo.
We tried to identify the book Putin was reading in the photo. Google translated the cover to “Report”. We could also see 2015 written on the brown cover. However, we weren’t able to find what he was reading. The book to his side, however, was one we could identify. It was “Matter Under Extreme Conditions: Classification of States” by Vladimir E Fortov.
Thus, we concluded that Putin was not reading about Imran Khan. At least in this photo.
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