Did Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin really cook pancakes during the BRICS summit in India? Fact Check
Claim: China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin cooked pancakes together during the 18th BRICS Summit held in India.
Conclusion: The claim is false. The video actually shows Putin and Xi making Russian pancakes with caviar on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September 2018, not at the 2026 BRICS Summit. While PM Narendra Modi had tea with Putin and Xi, they did not cook any pancakes.
Rating: False 
Several social media users have claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin cooked together during the recent BRICS summit held in India. Facebook user ‘InKhabar’ shared such a video clip with the caption (translated into English) : “Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed a meal together in India. The friendship between the two leaders was seen in a special way during the BRICS summit.” The video shows the two leaders cooking together, with a Hindi caption overlaid on the clip that translates to: “A different glimpse of Putin and Xi during the BRICS summit: they cooked together.” View the post below –
FACT CHECK
DigitEYE India decided to investigate this claim and found it to be false. The footage actually shows Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping preparing traditional Russian pancakes with caviar on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September 2018. Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Putin and Xi over tea during the BRICS Summit 2026, there is no evidence that the three leaders cooked pancakes together.
Details:
We first conducted a reverse image search on various keyframes of the video to learn about the origin. The search took us to a Youtube video uploaded 8 years ago on 12 September, 2018 titled : “Putin makes Pancakes w Chin’a Xi Jinping”
Another search result took us to a Youtube video uploaded by Voice of America on 12 September, 2018. The video is titled : “Putin and Xi make pancakes | VOANews” and the description notes how the event took place “on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.”
Using this information, we then conducted a web search with the phrase “Putin and Xi make pancakes in Vladivostok”.
According to a report by Business Insider uploaded on 12 September, 2018, “Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping took a break from meetings on Tuesday to show off their cooking skills.” The report further notes that it happened while “attending an economic forum in the far eastern port of Vladivostok…” These were “traditional Russian pancakes” called blini which were “ topped with caviar”. View a section from the report below –
The 4th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok took place on 11–13 September 2018. Another report by The Moscow Times has also written about this, confirming that the cooking session took place “after their talks in Russia’s eastern city of Vladivostok in 2018.”
DigitEYE India found no credible reports or evidence that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin cooked together during the 2026 BRICS Summit in India. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen having tea with Xi and Putin, there is no credible evidence of a cooking session involving the these leaders or of them making pancakes.
Thus, the claim is false.
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