RT India removed a social media post that claimed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was “looking forward to meeting” Russian President Vladimir Putin, admitting that the claim “may have been a misrepresentation of events.”
In a clarification issued late Friday, the outlet said: “We removed a previous post about Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif waiting to meet Vladimir Putin at the Peace and Trust in Turkmenistan forum. The post may have been a misrepresentation of events.”
According to Indian media reports, the original RT India post claimed that Prime Minister Shehbaz waited for President Putin for 40 minutes before “getting tired and barging in” to the Russian leader’s meeting with President Erdogan. “He left ten minutes later,” said the original post, cited by The Times of India and Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile, Russian news agency RIA reported that Prime Minister Shehbaz later joined talks between Presidents Erdogan and Putin, which continued for 40 minutes behind closed doors.
Sharing on
Footage showed Prime Minister Shehbaz shaking hands with President Putin in what appeared to be a hallway. Tarar described engagements with Putin, Erdogan and Pezeshkian as “warm and cordial exchanges.”
Similarly, the prime minister’s spokesperson for foreign media, Mosharraf Zaidi, also shared the same video and said the prime minister had “productive meetings with his peers from all countries” who attended the forum.
“The usual warmth in relations was amply evidenced as the prime minister shared the day with President Erdogan, President Putin and a host of other key world leaders,” he said. The Russian embassy in Pakistan also reposted the video.
It is pertinent to note that RT India is the newest branch of Russia’s state-funded global media network. President Putin formally launched the RT India news channel last week during a visit to New Delhi.
