Posts don’t show ‘Putin condemning Denmark for looting Indonesian tanker’

A video has been viewed millions of times on social media posts claiming to show Russian President Vladimir Putin angrily condemning Danish authorities for “looting” an Indonesian tanker after it picked up oil from Russia. This is false; footage shows a ship that was blocked off the coast of Denmark in March 2022 by Greenpeace activists calling for a ban on the import of fossil fuels from Russia. Putin’s clip was taken from an unrelated speech he gave in March 2021, in which he accused the West of trying to “cancel” Russian culture.

The 29-second video was shared on Facebook. here on April 5, 2022. It has been viewed more than 790 times.

The first part of the video shows people in kayaks floating near a large oil tanker.

The Indonesian text overlaid on the video translates to English as: “Finally, Putin has heard the news that the Indonesian ship Pertamina was looted by Denmark.”

The video shows a clip of Russian President Vladimir Putin giving a speech.

Indonesian subtitles superimposed on the clip suggest that he was making a statement directed at Denmark.

Translated into English, the subtitles read: “How dare you loot my brother Pertamina Indonesia’s ship? You are looking for trouble with me. Your country is not safe, you have dared to take the oil I gave to my brother Pertamina Indonesia. .”

Pertamina is the state-owned oil and gas company of Indonesia.

The video has been viewed more than 8.6 million times after it was shared on TikTok. here, hereY hereand on YouTube here Y here.

However, the claim in the video is false.

A reverse image search on Google found the original videosTitled “Greenpeace Activists Block Tankers to Stop Oil Trading”, posted on the YouTube channel of US news outlet Inside Edition on March 31, 2022.

The Inside Edition logo can be seen in the video on the misleading posts.

The video’s caption reads in part: “It was a true David and Goliath showdown as environmentalists in kayaks tried to block a tanker from transferring oil to another tanker.

“Greenpeace activists positioned themselves between the two ships in waters off the coast of Denmark in an attempt to stop the exchange, which they claim is helping finance Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Since Russian forces invaded the sovereign nation in late February, many countries have imposed sanctions.”

A dozen Greenpeace activists, riding kayaks and swimming in the water off the coast of Denmark, blocked the transfer of Russian oil between two tankers on March 31, 2022, AFP reported. here.

Environmental activists tried to stop the Maltese Flag Seaoath Ship to approach the Pertamina Primean oil tanker owned by Pertamina International Shipping, a subsidiary of Pertamina.

greenpeace said so organized the action call for a ban on the import of fossil fuels from Russia, following the country’s policy invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The Danish police ended the 24-hour lockdown on April 1, 2022.

Below is a comparison of screenshots taken from the video in the hoax post (left) and the original Inside Edition video (right):

False Subtitle

A reverse image search followed by keyword searches on Google found Putin’s video in the misleading posts that matched images of a video posted on the AFP YouTube channel on March 25, 2022.

The title of the video reads: “Putin compares attacks on Russian culture to Nazi book burnings | AFP.”

The misleading video’s subtitles do not match Putin’s comments, translated from Russian to English, in the AFP video.

Online searches found no evidence that Putin made the statement about the Pertamina Indonesia ship attributed to him in the misleading post.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the clip in the hoax post (left) and the AFP video (right):

The misleading video also includes a photo of Putin and a photo of another oil tanker, but neither is related to the Greenpeace protest.

Putin’s image is a Reuters Photo taken during his news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Moscow on February 7, 2022, weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The image of the tanker was published in the website of Pertamina International Shipping to illustrate “port-to-port shipping services”, and actually shows another tanker, MT Fastron.

The photo has circulated online since at least 2021 in Indonesian-language news reports about the Pertamina subsidiary, for example. here Y here.