No evidence Putin said wealthy Pakistanis only return home to be buried

No evidence Putin said wealthy Pakistanis only return home to be buried

(Reuters) There is no evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly said wealthy Pakistanis do not care about their homeland and only return there to be buried, as alleged by some social media users.

A March post on Facebook, shared more than a dozen times, has attributed a 76-word quote to the Russian leader, which suggests financially successful Pakistani citizens neglect their home country (here).

It reads: “When a Pakistani becomes rich, his bank accounts are in Switzerland. He travels to London/America for medical treatment. He invests in UK/Dubai. He buys from Dubai. He consumes Chinese. He prays in Rome or Mecca. His children study in Europe. He travels to Canada, USA, Europe for tourism. If he die[s], he will be buried in his native country of Pakistan. Pakistan is just a cemetery for Pakistanis. How could a cemetery be developed?” 

— Major Muhammad Arif (Retd) TI(M) (@ArifRetd) April 10, 2022

 

However, Reuters has been unable to find any evidence that Putin made such a comment.

There is no record of the statement on the website of the Kremlin, where the Russian president’s public comments are recorded (kremlin.ru/) – nor are there any reputable news sources reporting on the comments.

Reuters did, however, trace the alleged quote back several years on social media to at least November 2018, where no source was referenced (here and here). The first of those posts has been shared more than 27,000 times.

It was also shared in 2018 with a tweak: the message referred to Africa rather than Pakistan (here, here and here).

Reuters has dealt with this same claim in a fact check here - but substituting “Pakistanis” in the quote to “Africans.”

Multiple other English-language fact-checks have also addressed the quote (here, here, here and here).

VERDICT

No evidence. Claims that Vladimir Putin made such a statement are unfounded.