Tale of Russian President, Vladimir Putin staying in Tanzania. Fact or Farrago?

As soon as the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out in February 2022, speculations regarding the Moscow Headman, Vladimir Putin living in Bagamoyo, Tanzania in the past took the world by storm.

Russian Leader, Vladimir Putin was allegged to have spent four consecutive years, living and working in Tanzania.

“President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who is currently making headlines with his invasion of Ukraine, was training freedom fighters from various African Nations that were operating from Tanzania in the 70s,” wrote this paper when the speculations floated.

Putin stayed in Tanzania where he was training freedom fighters for more than five years, precisely in the period between 1973 and 1977.

Though the period is yet to be confirmed as others claim it was in the 80s

An old photo to that effect was unveiled a few years ago by a Zimbabwean News Outlet.

The former KGB boss, Vladimir Putin, according to iHarare, conducted the training at various army bases in the country but especially at the freedom fighters training fields of Kaole in the Coastal Town of Bagamoyo, along the Indian Ocean shoreline.

One of the Ruins in the Historical town of Bagamoyo, a place where Vladimir Putin trained African Freedom fighters

In those days, Tanzania, shortly after its independence, used to be at the forefront in championing the African Liberation Movements a mission the country embarked onto from the late 60s all the way to the mid-eighties.

Many of Mozambique and South African freedom fighters were hosted in among other areas, Morogoro and Bagamoyo in Tanzania.

Online outlets claimed that the man Third from left was the current Russian President Vladimir Putin, next to him is the first African Mozambique President, the late Samora Machel, together with the Zimbabwean President Emmerson Munangagwa. Photo said to have been taken in Bagamoyo in 1973. However other reports say it was in East German

But the photo is credited to iHarare the Zimbabwean news outlet which so far insists it was taken in the Tanzanian coastal town.

However the Russian Cultural Center, say the photo could have been taken in Eastern German in the mid-70s. However the fact that Putin might have dropped into Tanzania in the past is possible, only that the photo had nothing to do with the issue.

**Headlines and Sidelines: Russian President Putin**, putting up different faces

Back in the days, a number of medical personnel from Tanzania also went to be trained in Moscow.

The other notable figure who also ‘dropped by’ unannounced in Tanzania was Che Guevara who stayed in Dar-es-salaam from 11th to the 18th of February, 1965.

Che Guavara an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist, all rolled up into one, was distinguished figure in the Cuban Revolution.

**Guavara is believed to have secretly visited Tanzania twice in the past.**

Guavara even took an excursion into the Ngorongoro Crater that year. He was officially seen on the 18th of February 1965 when giving a press conference in Dar es Salaam. Shortly after he left the city.

Some say Guavara trevelled to Kigoma from where he entered Congo.

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