ISLAMABAD: An India-based Russia Today (RT) account on X removed a post early Saturday after misstating the circumstances of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Turkmenistan.
The deleted post had claimed that PM Sharif “waited over 40 minutes for President Putin before growing tired and gatecrashing” the Russian leader’s meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It further asserted: “He left ten minutes later.”
Early Saturday, the same account acknowledged that its earlier message “may have been a misrepresentation of the events,” adding: “We deleted an earlier post about Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif waiting to meet Vladimir Putin at the Peace and Trust Forum in Turkmenistan.”
No apology accompanied the clarification.
The account, which is followed by more than 76,000 users, including RT’s main handle, does not identify itself as a parody, commentary, or fan page. X’s policies state that accounts “must be authentic” and that any non-authentic accounts must clearly disclose their status as Parody, Commentary, or Fan.
Presenting itself as an official platform, the RT India account’s post was subsequently carried by several Indian outlets, including The Times of India, NDTV, and India Today, amplifying the inaccurate portrayal of the meeting.
In contrast, the Embassy of Russia in Pakistan confirmed that President Putin met PM Sharif in Ashgabat. The embassy released a video showing the two leaders warmly greeting each other in a hallway, contradicting the imagery circulated by the India-based RT account, which had depicted the prime minister seated and waiting.
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