Viral Photo Of Dr Ambedkar’s Portrait In Putin's Office Is Morphed

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 been widely shared on Facebook. View one such Facebook post here.

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.”