#11 - JRL 7238
From: "Edward Keenan" <KeenanE@doaks.org>
Subject: RE: 7237 - Putin in UK
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003

Dear David,

Re Jill Lawless' report in #7237: "President Vladimir Putin flew to London Tuesday to be feted as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II in the first state visit by a Russian leader to Britain since Czar Alexander II in 1874.... The last time a Russian leader made such a visit was in 1874 when Alexander II stayed with Queen Victoria...."

I can't be the only reader old enough to remember that in April 1956, at the height of the Cold War, Khrushchev and Bulganin, clearly "leaders" of the Soviet Union, went to Britain on a much-publicized and quite official visit.

I must assume, sadly, that Western journalists are being misled by someone in Putin's press office, who him/herself may not know any better.

Edward L. Keenan
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of History, Harvard University
Director, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections
1703 32nd. Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007