Footage of prisoner swap is not recent

In the aftermath of a high profile prisoner exchange on 1 August between Russia and several other countries, including the United States and Germany, posts claiming to show footage of the event  have been widely shared on social media. 

But while footage of the exchange earlier this month does exist, the clip being shared in the posts is over two years old and shows a different prisoner exchange.

The video clip accompanying the posts shows officials with their faces blurred leading a man down the stairs of a small plane. Another man, accompanied by several other officials with their faces blurred is then led on to the same plane. 

The US confirmed on Thursday that three of its citizens, including Wall Street Post journalist Evan Gershkovich who had been sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment in Russia, were to be released in a prisoner exchange. 

All three were met by US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their families after landing in Maryland. Thirteen others were released by Russia and in exchange, eight Russian prisoners were released from jails in the US, Norway, Germany, Poland and Slovenia.

But the footage of the prisoner swap being shared on social media wasn’t taken on Thursday.

It actually dates back to April 2022, and shows a former US Marine, Trevor Reed, being exchanged for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian who had been serving a 20 year jail term for drug trafficking charges.

Misleading pictures and videos are some of the most common types of misinformation we see online, and are often particularly prevalent in the wake of a major breaking news story. 

In recent days we’ve checked videos claiming to be protests at the Olympics and old pictures of an injured police officer wrongly shared as though they were taken after an incident at Manchester Airport. 

For help identifying these misleading images and videos yourself you can read our guides.