Former White House chief photographer Pete Souza has for years photographed US presidents in meetings with other powerful figures.
In 1998, he photographed former President Ronald Reagan with the leader of the then Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. One of the photos shows Gorbachev and Reagan during a tour of the Red Square in Moscow, where several other people were also present.
It is this image that now, 33 years later, attracts attention – is the man in the striped shirt, with side parting and camera around his neck, Russian President Vladimir Putin as a young man?
Rejects attacks: – Not on the list
Received a letter in the mail
In 1993, Souza published the book “Unguarded Moments” with pictures from his time in the White House under the Reagan administration.
“Ten years later, I received a random letter in the mail from someone who asked if I knew I had taken a picture of Reagan and Vladimir Putin – who had then become Russia’s president,” the photographer writes in a Instagram posts Tuesday.
It made the photographer scratch his head.
– Spy
In 2009, he was hired as a photographer for the Obama administration. A few days before the presidential inauguration, Souza was interviewed by the American news agency NRP.
In a conversation about the importance of presidential images and how it can change over time, Souza uses the image from Moscow as an example.
– As soon as you see the picture now, you think “Oh, it really is him”, he said.
– But I should not have said that, Souza writes on Instagram, and adds that it led to major discussions.
Putin gave a surprising gift
Barely a month after the NRP interview, Souza received a new letter. In the envelope was the 1998 photo attached, with a red ring around the man in the striped shirt. Next to it was written “spy”.
It is known that Putin worked for the KGB intelligence service in Berlin at this time.
– I delivered the letter to the Secret Service, but it did not work, he writes.
Not confirmed
The two letters shocked the experienced photographer.
For a long time he has been trying to find out who the man in the striped shirt really is, but no one has been able to confirm his identity.
Putin’s spokesman has previously said it is not the Russian president. The photographer himself is nevertheless convinced that it is Putin who snuck into the picture with Gorbachev in 1998 – but why is still a mystery.
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