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Vladimir Putin: Fake tourist?

by Aaron Hotfelder (RSS feed) on Mar 20th 2009 at 11:30AM

It was a well-known tactic of the KGB, the Soviet Secret Police organization, to disguise their agents as tourists who would ask probing and embarrassing questions of visiting heads of state. But a new photo has just surfaced that purports to show Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was once a member of the KGB, dressed as a tourist during Ronald Reagan's 1988 visit to the Soviet Union.

Pete Souza, the man who took the photo above, says the US Secret Service was not fooled by the undercover KGB agents. According to Souza (now the official White House presidential photographer), Reagan reportedly said, "I can't believe these tourists in the Soviet Union are asking these pointed questions." A nearby Secret Service agent replied, "Oh, these are all KGB families."

So is the dorky tourist in the photo above really Vladimir Putin, as Souza claims? Not according to Russian political analyst Andrey Piontkovsky. "Vladimir Putin was a major serving in Dresden and he wasn't important enough at that time to be brought to Moscow," he said.

More here.

Filed under: Russian Federation, News

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

jen Mar 20th 2009 1:09PM

I'm no KGB, but I think that's him. (And this is why I'm not a KGB).

Dr Aris Jansons Mar 22nd 2009 5:40PM

There is no doubt that it is not Vladimir Putin on the photo. One just needs to thoroughly compare Putin's known photos of that time and the person with camera standing in Moscow's Red Square. I am not even speaking about absence of wristwatch on the man's right hand and thickness of his hair, pointed out also by the Axis Information and Analysis website. It is ridiculous to allege that the KGB would have called back to Moscow one of its captains or majors stationed in East Germany just to shake hands with the visiting US President while East Germany was on brink of collapse.

jen laceda Mar 24th 2009 12:21PM

If I were a tourist, my arms wouldn't that be that relaxed. I'd be taking snapshots of Reagan right about now...

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