2022 image of army line-up wrongly linked to Putin's recent visit to Chechnya

What is the claim?

On August 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Chechnya, a republic in the Russian Federation. Putin was greeted by the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, before visiting the special forces academy and speaking to volunteer fighters who trained there before deployment to Ukraine. 

While the Kremlin and Chechen authorities have not disclosed the purpose or timing of the unexpected visit, it comes as Ukraine's cross-border incursion into Western Russia entered its third week. The Associated Press, citing Russian state media, reported that Kadyrov stated he had "tens of thousands" of reservists ready to fight against Ukraine.

Amid the visit, online users shared an image of a large line-up of military personnel with captions like, "Kadyrov reported to Putin that a reserve of several tens of thousands of trained fighters has been formed in Chechnya, ready to go to the special operation zone on the president's orders" (archived here).

Other online users remarked, "This monstrous army of fully trained Chechen reservists was presented to Putin yesterday as a surprise" (archived here). 

Logically Facts found that the image was captured in 2022 and is unrelated to the recent visit.

What did we find?

A reverse image search of the image led us to an article by EuroWeekly News headlined, "WATCH: 20,000 'elite fighters' gathered in Chechnya to wish Vladimir Putin happy birthday," with a matching photo to the viral image. The article was published on October 7, 2022.

                                                               

The screenshot on the left was captured from the viral X post, and the right screenshot shows the same image in a EuroWeekly News article published October 7, 2022. (Source: X/EuroWeekly News/Modified by Logically Facts) 

The article cites a Telegram post by Kadyrov, also published on October 7, 2022. The post includes a 19-minute video of the festivities and a shot matching the viral image [time stamp 0.35]. The video shows large crowds of military personnel, arms, military vehicles, and speeches during the celebration.

A screenshot of Kadyrov's Telegram post on October 7, 2022, and a screenshot of the video on the post. The time stamp 0:35 of the video shows matching visuals to the viral image. (Source: Telegram)

In the post caption, Kadyrov stated, "We began today's significant ceremonial formation of the security forces of the Chechen Republic. The event was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the President of Russia, Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Vladimir Putin" (translated from Russian). Kadyrov also said his forces are ready to fight for Putin in Ukraine. 

Multiple media outlets reported on Putin's birthday festivities in Grozny, the Chechen capital, on October 7, 2022. The Russian media TASS reported that a line-up of over 20,000 military personnel of the Chechen Republic joined the festivities of Putin's birthday. Yahoo News also published satellite footage of the event.

The top screenshot shows the satellite footage published by Yahoo News, and the screenshot below that photo was captured from the video shared by Kadyrov. (Source: Yahoo News/Telegram/Modified by Logically Facts)

We found that the buildings and surroundings matched the video posted by Kadyrov.

The verdict

The image dates back to October 2022 and is unrelated to Putin's recent visit to Chechnya and the Ukrainian offensive in Russia. The footage was captured during Putin's 70th birthday celebrations in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Therefore, we marked the claim as misleading.