Fake Photo: Putin Did NOT Kneel Before Xi Jinping

Last week, the world's attention was focused on the highly anticipated visit of Xi Jinping, the President of China, to Russia. The visit was seen as an opportunity for friendly cooperation between China and Russia. News about the world's potential political direction from this event was widespread (Read about this global-impact meeting here). Amidst this news, A photo of Putin kneeling to Xi circulated across social media platforms.

Social Media Claim

On March 20, a Twitter User posted a picture with the caption:

“PUTIN 🇷🇺 - XI 🇨🇳 MEETING

Putin attempting to persuade Xi."

Source | Archive

The tweet has been viewed over 780K times so far, and the picture quickly spread over the internet.

However, after investigation, we found the picture was fake.

Fact-Checking

We started our investigation by using the Reverse Image Search feature. Unfortunately, we did not find any credible sources for this picture. However, we did discover that this picture has been fact-checked and debunked by DW.com (read the article here).

DW explained the potential for this image to have been created by AI, as some parts appear unusual. For example, Putin's shoe appears too large, and his calf looks stretched. In addition, the head is disproportionate to the body. Additionally, the ear seems deformed, with bumps not present in other pictures of Putin. Another oddity is the appearance of Xi Jinping's ear when zoomed in. And the man to their left appears to have his hands stuck together.

We have made comparisons for more clarity and understanding.

In the left picture, we can see that the head and body proportions look unbalanced, and the ear is different from the real picture of Putin we found. (Photographed by Mikhail Svetlov, Getty Images)

The ear in the left picture seems deformed and different from Xi Jinping's ear in this picture. (Picture from Bloomberg)

When we look at the man in the back of the picture, his hands appear to be merged together.

Moreover, we compared the claimed photo to other pictures and videos of Putin and Xi Jinping at the event to investigate further. We found that the two leaders had never been photographed in this pose. Furthermore, the background in the claimed photo differs from the one in the news. Additionally, the color of Xi's outfit is different. He wore a black suit that day, but the picture in question showed him wearing a navy suit.

The picture in question compares to an actual photo of two leaders from CNN.

Conclusion

The picture of Putin kneeling before Xi Jinping is fake. The image appears to have been generated by AI, and there are several inconsistencies when compared to actual photos and videos from verified sources, including differences in costumes and settings.