An image claiming to show President Putin holding President Obama’s tie in an apparent attempt to draw Obama closer is spreading across social media.
The image is spreading online amidst controversy that began at the Helsinki 2018 summit when President Trump drew criticism for seemingly siding with President Putin over US Intelligence Services, a stance that Trump has subsequently “clarified”.
Many captions attached to the image assert the image demonstrates that it was Obama, not Trump, who has been “colluding” with Russia, or was Russia’s “lapdog”.
However, the image is of course fake. It has been digitally manipulated to make it appear that Putin is holding Obama’s tie, when he was not. The original image can be seen below.
As such, the image is fake.