Vladimir Putin has landed in a row after the release of a photograph showing him meeting the then Ronald Reagan as an undercover KGB agent disguised as a tourist in 1988.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has landed in a row after the release of a photograph showing him meeting the then US president Ronald Reagan as an undercover KGB agent disguised as a tourist in 1988.
President Barack Obama's official photographer Pete Souza has claimed that he took the photograph at Red Square in Moscow 21 years ago when Reagan was on his first-ever tour to the erstwhile Soviet Union.
According to him, the photo indicates that Putin was actually part of a KGB plot to harangue Reagan in Moscow over his human rights record, leading British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported.
In the photo, published by the newspaper, a young man, claimed as Putin, and dressed in a tight t-shirt with a still camera slung around his neck, was seen as part of a tourist
group meeting Reagan. Souza, who was a member of the US delegation in his
capacity as Reagan's official photographer, has claimed that Reagan was led to the group positioned at Red Square to ask a series of questions about US's human rights record. He said that a Secret Service officer told him that the tourists were "all KGB families".
"Now what is really interesting is a picture I have in my Reagan book. Off to the left, is one of these tourists with a camera around his shoulder and it has been pointed out to me and verified that that was Putin," he said.
Though Putin's official spokesman was unavailable for comment, political sources said the Kremlin was convinced that the Obama administration had approved the photograph's release in an attempt to smear the Russian prime minister.
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