Original article (in Serbian) was published on 15/11/2021
Kurir, B92, Informer, Srbija danas, Pink, Blic, Novosti, 24 Sedam, Red Portal and Vesti reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin quoted Aleksandar Vucic on his Instagram profile.
However, according to the official website of the President of Russia, he has a Twitter and YouTube account but no Instagram.
The Instagram account that shared the news about Vucic, which our media then quoted, has not been verified. In the profile description, users are invited to send direct messages if they want to collaborate, which indicates that this is just a fan page of Vladimir Putin. The username and profile photo on Instagram are completely different from those from the official Twitter account. The alleged Putin’s Instagram account has a profile photo of Putin and the bear, while the verified Twitter account has a coat of arms, and the YouTube account features a photo of the Kremlin.
This “fake” Putin is not the only such account on Instagram because there are others, some of which have significantly more followers. However, none of these accounts have been verified.
Putin has already shown disinterest and animosity towards the most popular foreign social networks, and TASS quoted Putin’s spokesman earlier this year, according to whom Putin does not plan to have his accounts on social networks. As Peskov says: “The president will not waste time managing accounts on social networks. He also does not want, for example, that me, his spokesman, manage his account for him. He believes that would be wrong”.
This is not the first case that the public believed in a fake profile using the name of Vladimir Putin. Earlier in 2018, Twitter shut down a profile that was falsely presented.