Fact Check: Is Image of 'Scared' Putin Connected to Russia's Ukraine War?

After months of defending the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces are thought to soon strike back against Russia in a counteroffensive that might add headaches for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming months.

Putin is said to be facing pressure from allies to change invasion plans into a defensive operation with analysis suggesting that even recruiting 400,000 conscripts into his armed forces would merely freeze Russia's current front lines in Ukraine.

Amid this speculation and strategizing, an image of the Russian president was shared on Twitter that suggested he looked "scared" amid the threat of this retaliation from Kyiv's forces.

The Claim

A tweet by user @AnonOpsSE, posted on April 24, 2023, viewed 353,000 times stated: "Yo yo yo@MFA_Russia, WTF is going one [sic] with Putler?! He looks scared... #RussiaIsCollapsing#RussiaIsLosing."

A photo of what appeared to be Putin was included beneath the tweet.

The Facts

The image, of what looks like Putin, alongside anti-Russian hashtags and the question of "WTF is going on" strongly implies that the photo was taken recently amid the context of a Ukrainian counteroffensive threat.

Hunched over, in the dark, and with something of a pained expression, the photo is a far cry from the infamous shots of the Russian leader photographed shirtless in the Russian countryside.

The image was so uncanny that several Twitter users questioned the picture's authenticity and provenance.

However, while the photo is of Putin, it was taken before Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The photo—captured for a somewhat ostentatious media appearance, even if the results made Putin look a little sheepish—was taken from a video recorded in 2019 of Putin in a submarine, off Gogland Island in the Gulf of Finland in the eastern Baltic Sea, west of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Euronews reported that the Russian president had joined a group of divers to inspect the remains of a Soviet submarine that sank during World War II.

The sunken submarine was discovered in September 2018, thought to have hit a German mine, killing all 40 crew members, the Daily Mail reported.

Although not the exact frame, a video showing Putin's descent into the water can be seen in the clip below.

The trip was not the first time that Putin held a press call for a submarine dive. In 2013, he took another dive to be shown the wreckage of a 19th-century frigate, according to Reuters.

Upon emerging, Putin said: "We didn't really do such work before. I think the time has come now, we can finally do that in terms of financial and technical capabilities. The moral duty towards the Fatherland defenders goes without saying."

Like some of Putin's other bold photo choices over the years, his submarine journeys have been adapted into memes, gently ribbing its unusual nature, shared on Ukrainian news sites.

However amusing that clips from the original footage, or memes it inspired, might be, the picture was not taken recently nor since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Ruling

Misleading Material.

While the image in the tweet is a photo of Putin, it has nothing to do with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It was taken during a submarine dive off an island in the Gulf of Finland in 2019.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team