A tweet about Russian President Vladimir Putin sparked controversy on Twitter after he spoke of classified information that a former Soviet spy in the Cold War-era city of Dresden, Germany, had smuggled a washing machine with him when he returned to Russia. .
According to the American magazine Newsweek, on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, Putin, while his career is almost completely secret, has an unusual rumor out of his grasp.
A tweet on October 1 claimed that after the end of the Cold War, Putin, who was a KGB spy in East Germany, returned to St. Petersburg in a washing machine.
Funny fact:
When East Germany collapsed and Putin had to return to his home in Leningrad, do you know what was the only thing he brought back from East Germany? I’m not joking:
It was a washing machine
— (((Tendar)) (@Tendar) October 1, 2022
“Fun fact: When East Germany fell and Putin had to go back home to Leningrad, do you know what the only thing he brought with him from East Germany? I kid you not, it was a washing machine,” said Twitter. ” Read.
The tweet provided an ironic reference to widespread media reports that Russian soldiers had been ransacking Ukrainian homes and stealing household appliances, including dishwashers and toilets, to take back to Russia.
Certainly, the gloomy image of a young couple dragging a washing machine into their apartment would not have the personality of the Russian president, who is reported to be worth $200 billion, and likewise, Putin’s thrifty days. In moving. Appliances across Europe are over.
But two witnesses (his ex-wife among them) say Putin did indeed transport a washing machine from East Germany to Russia when he returned home in 1991, although the washing machine was not the only thing he sent.
Two novels confirm this story, one about the man who moved into his apartment in Dresden, and another in a series of interviews about the Russian president from his ex-wife Lyudmila Butina.
The interview with Lyudmila, who was married to Putin between 1983 and 2013, was included in the autobiographical text First Person: A Surprising Frank Self-Portrait.
Lyudmila described their experience of living in East Germany as “terrible” and elaborated on what money they had (or rather, didn’t have).
Putin’s ex-wife said: “Besides, we didn’t save when we worked in Germany. The car ate up all our money. Our German neighbors gave us their old washing machine, it was 20 years old. We gave it to We brought it home. We used it for another five years.”
When Putin moved from East Germany in 1991, his new tenant in his Dresden apartment, Jörg Hoffmann, met him to collect the keys.
In an interview with the famous newspaper Bild, Hoffman said: 10 or 12 soldiers helped to separate the furniture and put it in wooden boxes. They had a problem with the washing machine and 6 men were holding it down.
So the account, confirmed by two sources, that Putin brought a washing machine with him from East Germany seems true, albeit strange. But contrary to the tweet’s second claim, the washing machine wasn’t the only thing he brought with him from East Germany.
Newsweek noted that Putin’s past in Germany has recently come under scrutiny. In September of this year, the magazine denied claims that Putin spied on late US President Ronald Reagan in Moscow during his interview with former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Source: Lebanon Debate
