Fact Check: Morphed CNN graphic portrays Putin warning India to not interfere in Ukraine crisis

In the midst of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, an alleged screengrab from a CNN News broadcast has gone viral on social media. The screengrab has a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin along with the quote, “India should not interfere, otherwise be ready to face the consequences”. Twitter user Sonu Mehra tweeted this screengrab and remarked that Putin is warning India while the country’s media is propping up the Russian president. The tweet drew over 3,000 likes as of this writing. (Archived link to the tweet)

पुतिन ने भारत को चेतावनी दी है, बीच में घुसने की कोशिश न करे वरना अंजाम भुगतने को तैयार रहे ।
और यहां की गोदिमीडिया साहब को विश्व का महान नेता बता रही है , 🥱😲😟🤔😧 pic.twitter.com/PQywivomSn

— Sonu Mehra (@sonumehrauk) February 26, 2022

Twitter user @Manav_SS_Gupta tweeted the same image and garnered around 750 likes. (Archived link to tweet)

Several other users have shared this screengrab on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp.

Fact-check

Through a simple reverse image search, Alt News found the original CNN report dated November 12, 2019. But unlike the viral screengrab, the original reads, “Top Russian official jokes about interfering in US elections in 2020”. Above that text, it says “Putin’s New Punchline”.

It is thus obvious that the original text has been replaced with the fake quote in the viral screengrab.

‘The Lead CNN’ had tweeted the original screengrab on Twitter on November 12, 2019.

Thus, a screengrab of CNN’s broadcast was morphed to portray the Russian president warning India to not interfere in the Ukraine crisis.

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