No, Russian President Putin Didn't Say Gilgit-Baltistan Should Be Part of India

The subtitles have been added to falsely claim that Putin said Gilgit-Baltistan should be part of India.

Social media users are sharing a video where Russian President Vladimir Putin can be heard speaking in Russian with the subtitles running in English that read, Putin has announced to "veto the issue of Gilgit-Baltistan provisional province" in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and that he said "Gilgit-Baltistan should be a part of India."

Gilgit-Baltistan is a disputed area between India and Pakistan. Earlier, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced that his government would grant "provisional-provincial status" to Gilgit-Baltistan.

India has maintained that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the area of Gilgit-Baltistan, are an integral part of India.

However, we found that in the video, Putin spoke to top officials in Russia on 28 February about the Russian economy, sanctions imposed in the country, in the wake of Russia invading Ukraine.

The subtitles have been added to falsely claim that Putin spoke about the issue of Gilgit-Baltistan.

CLAIM

In the 29-second video, the subtitles read, "I clarified during my speech at UNSC that Gilgit Baltistan should be part of India. Russia doesn’t support Pakistani initiative to create Gilgit as provisional province."

The subtitles further suggest that Putin called Pakistan "an occupier in Gilgit" and said that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tried "convincing" him on the issue.

"Send Pakistan packing. They are only after your resouces. PM Khan asked for money. He wanted to send some Islamic Jihadis here. I said how about Bani Gala, will you sell it? He laughed and his teeth fell out. I veto Gilgit province motion in Security Council (sic)," the subtitles read.

Several social media users on Facebook and Twitter have shared the video along with similar claims and the archived links can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

In the viral video, there was a logo of a Russian media house. We took the help of Google lens, and found that it is of a Russian government funded media organisation named 'Россия 24'. This translated to 'Russia 24 live TV'.

We looked on YouTube with the keyword as 'Russia 24 live TV' and found the channel.

This video was published on 28 February and the title translated to 'Putin called a meeting on economic issues – Russia 24'. However, it didn't carry any subtitles.

Next, we looked with keywords on YouTube and found the video published on multiple news outlets.

In the video by Euro News published on 28 February, the subtitles mentioned that Putin had called on top officials, including Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin, to discuss about the economy, following sanctions put on the country as it invaded Ukraine.

He called the West an "empire of lies," the transcript read.

We also found the news being reported in other media organisations, including The Moscow Times, Sky News as well as international news agency Reuters.

Clearly, a false transcript has been added to claim that Putin said he would "veto the issue of Gilgit-Baltistan provisional province in the UNSC."

Several such false claims have been doing the rounds in the backdrop of the Ukraine-Russian war.

We have debunked these claims and urge you to verify before sharing.

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