Several pages on Facebook and the social network X (formerly Twitter) have published a video claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former leader of the mercenary group "Wagner".
Video footage shared on social media shows the Russian president laying flowers on a coffin, greeting people and paying respects over an open coffin before finally getting into his limousine. In the final seconds of the video, Putin is seen driving away alone.
After fact-checking by Reuters, it was found that the video footage does not show Putin at Prigozhin's funeral. (here)
Links to video material published on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter):
https://www.facebook.com/tunde.dng/videos/649684030269152/
A 2013 video of Vladimir Putin at the memorial of his former judo coach, Anatoly Rakhlin, has resurfaced on social media, with users falsely claiming it shows the Russian president attending the funeral of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
A clip posted on the YouTube channel named “EpsilonNewsNetwork” on August 10, 2013, titled “Putin shows his respect for late mentor Rakhlin” (here) has the same footage as in the claim. As an illustrative fact, Putin can be seen next to the coffin at the 28th second in the YouTube video and at the 16th in the video material published on social media. He can then be seen walking alone at 1:18 in the YouTube video and at the 42nd second in the video published on social media.
Furthermore, it was reported in the media before Prigozhin's funeral that Putin would not be present. (here)
Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin was buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of St. Petersburg on August 29, six days after he was killed in a plane crash.
Rakhlin, who was Putin's judo coach for 15 years, died at the age of 75 on August 7, 2013, (hereThe Kremlin's official website posted photos of Putin from what it called a "farewell ceremony" for Rakhlin (here).
Analyze:
The video footage shared on social media does not show Putin at Prigozhin's funeral.
The video footage is from 2013, where Putin attended the funeral of his judo coach, Rakhlin.
Based on the working methodology, this claim is assessed as "disinformation".
Rating:
A “Disinformation” rating is given to media reporting that contains a “mix” of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful content. This rating will also address reports that have incorrect attributions or headlines that do not reflect the text in terms of information accuracy.