Clip supposedly showing Putin honouring India national anthem is edited

Published on September 5, 2025 at 09:35
2 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

Altered footage of Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently revering India's national anthem has ricocheted among Indian social media users as several world leaders gathered in a recent summit in China. Audio of the Indian hymn has been digitally inserted onto the original clip, which is more than a decade old.

"Russian President standing for Indian National Anthem. Just watch, he is also tapping the person sitting next to him," reads a Facebook post shared on September 1, 2025.

"I am really feeling indebted for expressing regard to our National Anthem," it adds.

The accompanying video shows Putin walking toward the stage in a packed hall, then stopping to stand still as the "Jana Gana Mana" appears to play.

Screenshot of the false post captured September 3, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Similar posts also surfaced on X, Instagram and LinkedIn as China's Xi Jinping welcomed Putin, India's Narendra Modi and leaders from around 20 countries to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.

The high-security gathering -- held August 31 to September 1 -- aimed at boosting Beijing’s influence and promoting "a multipolar world order" (archived link).

But a combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found the circulating clip was taken from longer footage posted on the website of Russian television station Channel One on September 24, 2011 (archived link).

Visuals from the 51-second mark match the circulating clip but instead of India's "Jana Gana Mana", it was the Russian national anthem that actually plays.

According to the caption, the clip depicts a gathering of the ruling United Russia party where then president Dmitry Medvedev and Putin, at the time the country's prime minister, delivered speeches.

Screenshot comparison of the false post video (L) and the Channel One video

The clip of Putin's reaction to Russia's national anthem has been uploaded multiple times to YouTube since then (archived here and here).

AFP has debunked more misinformation around the Tianjin summit here.

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