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RT India Retracts Viral Claim That Pakistan's Sharif 'Gatecrashed' Putin–Erdogan Meeting

A retraction from RT India undercuts online claims that Shehbaz Sharif crashed a Putin–Erdogan meeting.

Overview

  • RT India's X post had alleged the Pakistani prime minister waited about 40 minutes, then entered a closed session between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan and left after roughly 10 minutes.
  • The outlet deleted the post and said it may have misrepresented events, offering no further detail on the sequence it described.
  • Russia's RIA Novosti reported the Putin–Erdogan talks continued privately and did not mention any interruption by Shehbaz Sharif.
  • Pakistan’s information minister and the prime minister’s spokesperson shared video of a hallway handshake with Putin and described engagements as warm and productive, with the Russian embassy in Pakistan resharing the clip.
  • The flap unfolded in Ashgabat during the International Forum for Peace and Trust, where Putin and Erdogan discussed Ukraine as social‑media mockery of the viral clip spread widely.