Old clip falsely portrayed as India providing air escort to Russian leader
- Published on December 11, 2025 at 03:52
- 2 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
As Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India for defence and trade talks on December 4, an old video surfaced in social media posts falsely claiming it showed New Delhi sending fighter jets to escort the leader's plane. The footage was published by Russian state news agency Sputnik in December 2017 and shows Putin's plane being escorted by Russian jets en route to Egyptian capital Cairo after a visit to Syria.
"Indian Air Force fighter jets escorted President Putin's plane through Indian skies. A glorious symbol of trust, partnership, and decades-old friendship," reads a Hindi Facebook post shared on December 4, 2025.
"Today's moment demonstrates that the partnership between the two countries not only has a history but also a future."
The 30-second video, viewed over 22,000 times, shows Putin looking out the window of his plane, before the scene cuts to show two fighter jets flying alongside a plane with a Russian flag marking.
The video was also shared in similar Facebook and X posts after the Russian leader arrived in India on December 4 for his first visit since the Ukraine war, a two-day trip aimed at strengthening defence ties even as New Delhi faces strong US pressure to curb its purchases of Russian oil (archived link).
Putin’s visit comes after US President Donald Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on most Indian products in August, citing India’s continued imports of Russian oil, which Washington says help finance Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hosted Putin in New Delhi for a summit focused on energy, defence and trade, thanked the Russian leader for his “unwavering commitment towards India" (archived link).
Comments from users on the false posts praised the "unwavering friendship" of the two countries.
"A salute to the valour of the Air Force and the unwavering friendship between India and Russia. This partnership will make tomorrow even safer," said one user.
However, the video was filmed in 2017, and AFP found no official reports of India Air Force jets escorting Putin's aircraft.
AFP has previously debunked a different false claim sharing the same video.
A reverse image search using keyframes from the video found a similar photo of Putin on a plane published on a Russian culture site, credited to state news agency Sputnik (archived link).
Meanwhile, a separate search found the video published by Italian daily Corriere Della Sera in a report about Putin's December 2017 trip to the Russian military base in Hmeimim, Syria (archived link).
A further keyword search using "Sputnik Hmeimim" in Russian led to a longer version of the video on an archived version of the Sputnik site.
The caption reads, "Russian fighter jets escort Vladimir Putin's plane en route to Cairo".
AFP reported Putin made a surprise visit to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Syria in December 2017, where he announced the withdrawal of most Russian forces while confirming that the Hmeimim and Tartus bases would remain active (archived link).
After his Syria visit, Putin continued on to Egypt, AFP's report stated.
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