By Sk Badiruddin
A morphed image is being shared on social media with a false claim that the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office displayed a portrait of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar on the wall.
The image was shared on the occasion of Ambedkar’s 133th Birthday observed on Friday, April 14.
BOOM found that the original image on Alamy, uploaded on February 15, 2007, shows the national emblem of the Russian Federation or the coat of arms of Russia was placed behind President Putin and not a photo of Dr. Ambedkar.
Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar also known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, a social reformer and India’s first law Minister was born on 14 April 1891 in Mhow, near Indore in Madhya Pradesh. The champion of Dalit rights, Ambedkar was the chief architect of the Constitution of India.
The viral image shared on social media shows a portrait of Dr Ambedkar hanging on the wall of President Putin’s office while he chairs a meeting.
The image along with a text reads as, “Russian President Mr. Vladimir Puttin has displayed Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's photo in his office....a great honour for India.!”
The image has beenwidely shared on Facebook. View one such Facebook post here.
BOOM also has received a verification request on its WhatsApp tip-line.
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Fact Check
BOOM was not able to find any credible news source that stated that Putin placed Dr Ambedkar's portrait in his office.
Further we ran a reverse search on TinEye and found that the original image on stock photo site Alamy. Alamy credited the image to Russian news agency Sputnik, which was documented on February 15, 2007.
The image was captioned as, “Russian President Vladimir Putin holding conference on economic issues in the Kremlin From left to right Sergei Ignatyev”
The original image shows the National emblem of the Russian Federation, the official governmental symbol of the Russian Federation inside the Security Council office instead of Dr Ambedkar’s portrait that has been claimed by the viral posts. The same insignia is also known as the coat of arms of Russia. It represents a quadrangular red heraldic shield, with rounded lower angles, acute on edged, with a golden double eagle that raised his unfolded wings. See a multi-colour image of the National Emblem here.
Photo from the Security Council Office
We found a similar image showing same interiors published on November 27, 2001 by the official site of the office of the Russian President. The image was headlined and captioned as follows, “Vladimir Putin chaired a Security Council session” and “President Putin at a Security Council session.”
According to the President’s official site, the Security Council Office was formed in 1992, which is a separate department of the Presidential Executive Office. The meetings of the Security Council are regularly held according to a schedule set by the Chairman, the President of Russia.
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