Russia accused of faking Putin’s Easter service visit by ‘using old pictures from 2021’ amid mounting questions over his health
The images, purportedly taken one year apart, appear to show Putin dressed in the same suit and look extremely similar – the only clearly discernible difference being the colour of his tie (left: 2021, right: 2022).
Putin is believed to have attended the midnight Easter service to mark Orthodox Easter on Sunday morning – April 24 – alongside Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin at Moscow’s huge gold-encrusted Christ the Saviour Cathedral. But images and video footage of the event have been seized upon by opposition media in Russia and Ukraine, suggesting the new clips were faked from last year’s service on May 2, 2021.
It comes after footage last week appeared to show Putin bloated and slouching at a meeting with the Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who looked equally fragile and slurred his words.