Fact-check: No, Putin is not reading Imran Khan's autobiography

A photo of Russian president Vladimir Putin has been digitally altered on social media to purportedly show the president reading the autobiography of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan.

The image is doctored.

Claim

On January 6, a verified account posted a photo on Twitter with the following caption: “The world reads Imran Khan,” the account tweeted, “We are very lucky to have a leader like Imran Khan.”

Putin is shown holding an autobiography written by Imran Khan, titled, “Pakistan: A Personal History”, which was published in 2011.

In the image another book can be seen lying on the desk next to Putin, which is a biography of Khan, written by B.J. Sadiq in 2017, titled, “Let There Be Justice: The Political Journey of Imran Khan.”

This tweet has been viewed over 99,000 times and has received 4,997 likes, so far.

On February 21, another Twitter account posted the same photo with the text: “Russian president Putin studying the book written by Imran Khan.”

Fact

The picture of the Russian president Vladimir Putin was taken on June 14, 2016, in Moscow, where he can be seen reading books about Russia, not about Imran Khan.

A reverse image search on Google reveals that in 2016 Putin visited the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he was presented with two books. One book was about the development of Russian civilization and the other about the theory of population growth. Both can be seen in the photo.

Pictures from the day were posted on the official website of the Russian president as well.

Putin was not reading Imran Khan’s autobiography.

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