Vladimir Putin has not been assassinated

^{By Ellen Blake}

A Facebook post that claims Russian President Vladimir Putin was assassinated is false, with the French President’s official website and the Twitter account of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs both showing that the pair have spoken on the phone since the claim was made.

The post, which was published on March 20, 2022, shows a photo of Mr Putin with a headline that reads: “Urgent: News that Russian President ‘Vladimir Putin was assassinated by unknown armed forces..Russia declares a state of emergency’”.

It directs users to a blog post written on March 19, which shows the same photo and headline without any evidence of Mr Putin’s supposed assassination.

But a sighting of Mr Putin and phone conversations he has held with French President Emmanuel Macron indicate that he is alive.

Last week Mr Putin attended the funeral of leading Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Moscow.  

Mr Macron’s diarised schedule shows the French leader held telephone conversations with Mr Putin on March 22 and March 29. A tweet by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also refers to the phone conversation.

On March 23, the Twitter account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Russia tweeted that Mr Putin and Mr Macron had spoken by phone at Macron’s request on March 22.

The Kremlin’s website also confirmed the conversation took place.