Pakistani handlers suspected behind deepfakes attempting to spoil India-Russia dynamics ahead of SCO meet

The Ministry of External Affairs and the Russian Embassy in India on Tuesday rebutted Fake Videos and X posts by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar targeting each other.

The MEA’s fact check unit on Tuesday debunked a viral social media post falsely attributed to EAM S Jaishankar, which claimed that he had expressed disappointment over the Russian minister’s “sarcastic” response to his appeal for peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The Ministry of External Affairs also fact-checked a digitally manipulated deepfake video shared by senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan. The AI-generated video falsely showed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticising India.


The Russian Embassy in India also fact checked the deepfake on Lavrov and called it out. Both Indian and Russian authorities cautioned against the growing challenge of digital disinformation and AI-generated misinformation impacting international relations.

Sources tell ET that AI generated fake video is likely to have been generated by Pakistani handlers to spoil India-Russia dynamics. Sources claimed the timing of the video is curious as it comes before SCO Civilisational Dialogue in Delhi this month and attempts to spoil India-Russia ties.