The source of the information provided by the CIA document is based on the 250-page file obtained by the agency after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which occurred under Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.

Popular podcast host Joe Rogan discussed this long CIA report with Post Malone on the episode 2018. This report gives information about the story that goes back to the late 1980s when KGB agents, and Russian spies, gathered some reports. These reports talked about something strange happening during military training in Russia. Later, Ukrainian news outlets covered these reports, and in 1993, they were officially written down in a secret file.

Mokèlé-mbèmbé Sightings

The first report of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé by Westerners dates back to 1776, and is attributed to a French missionary in the Congo River region by the name of Liévin-Bonaventure Proyart. The missionary reported that he had seen enormous footprints (a meter (3.28 ft) in diameter with claw prints) of some animal in that region. The creature that left these footprints, however, was not sighted. No further reports about the Mokèlé-mbèmbé were made until the early part of the 20th century.

In 1909, an explorer by the name of Lt. Paul Gratz wrote about a creature similar to the Mokèlé-mbèmbé, known as the 'Nsanga'. This creature is found in the legends of the natives living in present day Zambia, and is rumored to inhabit the Lake Bangweulu region. Gratz's report is important, as it is the first account that describes the animal as dinosaur-like. Since then, it has been commonly accepted that the Mokèlé-mbèmbé is some kind of dinosaur.

Around the same time, Carl Hagenbeck, a renowned German big game hunter, claimed that he had heard about the beast as well. In his autobiography, Beasts and Men , Hagenbeck wrote that he was told about "a huge monster, half elephant, half dragon" that was living "in the depth of the great swamps" in the interior of Rhodesia (an unrecognized state that once occupied the territory which is today Zimbabwe). Hagenbeck also wrote that:

"I am almost convinced that some such reptile must be still in existence. At great expense, therefore, I sent out an expedition to find the monster, but unfortunately they were compelled to return home without having proved anything, either one way or the other."

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