By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Russia’s state-funded media outlet RT India retracted a social media post on Saturday that suggested Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had waited impatiently to meet President Vladimir V. Putin during an international forum in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, acknowledging that the account “may have been a misrepresentation of events.”
The deletion followed a day of diplomatic engagements at the forum on Friday, where Sharif met with several world leaders, including Putin, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan and President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan.
Pakistan’s information minister, Ataullah Tarar, highlighted the encounters on the social media platform X, posting a video of Sharif shaking hands with Putin in a hallway. “Great interactions with world leaders. Pakistan shining at the global stage,” Mr. Tarar wrote late Friday. He described the meetings with Putin, Erdogan and Pezeshkian as “warm and cordial exchanges.”
Mosharraf Zaidi, Sharif’s spokesperson for foreign media, shared the same video, noting that the prime minister held “productive meetings with his peers from all the countries” at the forum. “The customary warmth in relations was in ample evidence as the prime minister shared the day with President Erdogan, President Putin and a host of other key world leaders,” Zaidi added.
The Russian Embassy in Pakistan also circulated the video, underscoring the encounter. RT India, however, had posted a different video that it later removed. In a late-night clarification on Friday, the outlet stated: “We deleted an earlier post about Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif waiting to meet Vladimir Putin at the Peace and Trust forum in Turkmenistan. The post may have been a misrepresentation of the events.”
The outlet, the latest branch of Russia’s global media network, was inaugurated by Putin during a visit to New Delhi last week. Indian news organisations, including The Times of India and Hindustan Times, reported that the original RT India post claimed Sharif had waited 40 minutes before “growing tired and gate-crashing” Putin’s meeting with Erdogan. “He left ten minutes later,” the post reportedly said.
Russia’s state news agency RIA offered a contrasting account, reporting that Sharif had joined the closed-door talks between Erdogan and Putin, which lasted 40 minutes. Tarar, responding to the situation in an interview with the local media, dismissed the need for further discussion. “No need for any comment on an Indian outlet which posted a fake story then deleted it, calling a misrepresentation of facts,” he said.
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