In May 1988, President Ronald Reagan traveled to Moscow for his 4th summit with Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviets prepared a grand welcome; buildings across from the Kremlin were repainted, streets repaved and trees and flowers planted along the boulevards.
The president’s schedule included attending the Bolshoi Ballet, speaking to students at Moscow’s State University and visiting Danilov Monastery, while First Lady would tour Leningrad.
In the above photo, the man with the camera around his neck standing behind the boy was the current Russian Prime Minister (and former president) Vladimir Putin.
He was pretending to be a tourist in his capacity as a KGB agent.
On that day, on the Red Square, Gorbachev introduced Reagan to various tourists, who asked the American president pointed questions about subjects such as human rights in the United States.
The photographer of this picture, Pete Souza, turned to the Secret Service and commented, “I can’t believe these tourists in the Soviet Union are asking these pointed questions.”
The agent replied, “Oh, these are all KGB families.”
LINKIE
2 comments:
Now THAT is a very cool blog post Howling ! AWESOME! Thanks!
Wow, sounds like a Church of Obama service! Some acorns don't fall too far from the ol' Soviet oak tree, do they?
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