On March 2, 2022, YouTube user Jevara PH posted a video entitled “GRABE!! PUTIN tuwang tuwa sa SPEECH ni PANGULONG DUTERTE!!!”. The thumbnail of the video shows President Rodrigo Duterte and a smiling Russian President Vladimir Putin. The video was taken from the open forum of the plenary session of the 16th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club that took place in Sochi, Russia in 2019. Other world leaders were also seen present in the said forum.

The uploader claimed that Putin was impressed with Duterte’s speech. A careful viewing of the longer video footage of the open forum uploaded by RTVMalacanang does not support this claim.

CLAIM:

Russian president Putin impressed with Duterte’s speech

RATING:

FALSE

FACTS:

According to the Valdai Discussion Club website, the forum featured in the video in question tackled the “influence of the East on the world order,” and Asia’s growing role in the changing world.

Duterte’s speech at the Valdai Discussion Club delved on several topics, including his human rights record. Due to Duterte’s long-winding answers in the open forum, at one point, Putin even asked the moderator to again ask the Philippine president questions about the growing influence of the East on world affairs. “Ask the President of Philippines. Can we equal west to the east? No, seriously. No joke,” Putin said.

While there were no indications that Putin was impressed with Duterte’s speech, the video uploaded by Jevara PH even used footages of the audience and other world leaders laughing, to make it appear that they were reacting positively to Duterte’s words. However, the audience were only reacting to Duterte’s replies to the moderator after being repeatedly reminded that his time to speak has lapsed.

WHY IT MATTERS:

The Jevara PH YouTube channel has 935,000 subscribers. As of this writing, the video has already reached 1.1 million views, 31,000 likes, and 2,730 comments. The timing of the release of this video is also suspect, especially with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Philippines has supported the United Nations General Assembly resolution that condemned Russia’s attacks against Ukraine. – Vanessa Adolfo and Jamaica Marciano

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