In an Instagram video, Russian President Vladimir Putin sits at a table and opens a triptych.
“Today, Vladimir Putin reveals to the world a secret that European has been hiding from African for more than a millennium that Jesus was Black,” a narrator says.
This March 22 post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency reported April 18, 2022, that the video showed Putin with a copy of the Savior Not Made By Hand icon that Putin was donating to the military, according to a Google translation from Russian to English.
It was “the protective icon of Russian troops over several centuries,” according to the state-owned Tass Russian News Agency.
“The Savior Not Made By Hand icon is a canonical depiction of the face of Jesus Christ which, according to legend, was miraculously imprinted on a cloth he used to wipe his face,” Tass said. “This image was depicted on the banners of the Russian army as well as placed over the gates of the fortresses.”
Neither report mentioned Putin revealing that Jesus was Black.
We rate that claim False.
