Carson Tells False Story About Putin, Abbas, Khamenei
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Ben Carson continues to tell a story about how Vladimir Putin, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei knew each other in 1968 at Patrice Lamumba University in Moscow. But it’s not true.
…on Oct. 8, Carson said much the same thing to CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.
Putin “already has substantial ties in the Middle East,” Carson said. “In the class of 1968 at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, Mahmoud Abbas was one of the members of that class, and so was Ali Khamenei. And that’s where they first established relationships with the young Vladimir Putin.”
…A half-dozen experts on the region unanimously told us that they doubted Khamenei ever studied in the Soviet Union — or that he did so in 1968, when he would have been 29…
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The biggest problem for the Putin portion of Carson’s claim is the calendar: In 1968, Putin would have been 16 years old.
According to his official biography, “in 1960-1968, Vladimir Putin attended Primary School No. 193 in Leningrad. After the eighth grade, he entered High School No. 281, a chemistry-focused magnet school under the aegis of a technology institute, completing his studies there in 1970.”
…The idea that the three men developed lifelong ties as students in the late-1960s-era Soviet Union is ridiculous. Pants on Fire!
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