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Active measures

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 Active Measures (Russian: "Активные мероприятия") are a form of political warfare conducted by the Soviet and Russian state security and intelligence services (Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, KGB, GRU, FSB, and SVR) to influence a course of world events , in addition to collecting intelligence. "Active measures" can be used abroad or domestically. They include disinformation, propaganda, counterfeiting official documents, and political repressions. According to the journalist of the Christian Science Monitor Daniel Schorr, these tactics were mimicked by CIA.

"Active measures" also include establishment and support of international front organizations (e.g. the World Peace Council); foreign communist, socialist and opposition parties; wars of national liberation in the Third World; and underground, revolutionary, insurgency, criminal, and terrorist groups. The intelligence agencies of Eastern European and other communist states also contributed in the past to the program, providing operatives and intelligence for assassinations and other types of covert operations.

Most important active measures were usually initiated or approved by the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party. Some of these measures were implemented using state-controlled mass media, Soviet Army, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other governmental institutions, in addition to the state security services.

The use of "active measures" were taught in special courses in the Andropov Institute of the KGB .

Retired KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin described "active measures" as "the heart and soul of the Soviet intelligence": "Not intelligence collection, but subversion: active measures to weaken the West, to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly NATO, to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs."

Puppet rebel forces

During "Trust Operation" (1921-1926), State Political Directorate (OGPU) of the Soviet Union set up a fake anti-Bolshevik underground organization, "Monarchist Union of Central Russia". The main successes of Trust Operation allegedly were the luring of Boris Savinkov, one of the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, and Sidney Reilly, MI6 agent, into the Soviet Union where they have been arrested and executed .

Puppet rebel forces were also widely used by NKVD during Basmachi Revolt and operations against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army

Political assassinations

The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc Romanian intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa described a conversation he had with Nicolae Ceauşescu, who told him about "ten international leaders the Kremlin killed or tried to kill": Laszlo Rajk and Imre Nagy from Hungary; Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej from Romania; Rudolf Slansky and Jan Masaryk from Czechoslovakia; the Shah of Iran; Palmiro Togliatti from Italy; John F. Kennedy; and Mao Zedong. Pacepa alleges some aditional details, such as a plot to kill Mao Zedong with the help of Lin Biao organized by the KGB and notes that "among the leaders of Moscow’s satellite intelligence services there was unanimous agreement that the KGB had been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy."

The second President of Afghanistan Hafizullah Amin was killed by KGB OSNAZ forces.

Italian Mitrokhin Commission

Main article: Italian Mitrokhin Commission

The controversed Italian Mitrokhin Commission, headed by senator Paolo Guzzanti (Forza Italia), worked on the Mitrokhin Archives from 2003 to March 2006. In a draft report, senator Guzzanti revived the "Bulgarian connection" theory concerning Mehmet Ali Agca's 1981 assassination attempt against the Pope John Paul II. Guzzanti declared that "beyond any reasonable doubt" the KGB was behind the assassination attempt against the Pope John Paul II in 1981 The commission draft report has no bearing on any judicial investigations, which have long been closed. The Italian draft report said Soviet military intelligence _ and not the KGB _ was responsible. In Russia, Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov called the accusation "absurd." The Italian Mitrokhin commission received criticism during and after its existence . It was closed in March 2006 without any proof brought to its various controversed allegations, including the claim that Romano Prodi, former and current Prime minister of Italy and former President of the European Commission was the "KGB's man in Europe." One of the informer of Guzzanti, Mario Scaramella, has been arrested for defamation and arms trade end of 2006.

Pacepa's allegations

Romanian defector Ion Mihai Pacepa has made the following allegations. According to him, KGB General Aleksandr Sakharovsky once said: "In today’s world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon." He also claimed that "Airplane hijacking is my own invention". According to defector ,]in 1969 alone 82 planes were hijacked worldwide by the KGB-financed PLO.

Papepa claimed that George Habash worked under KGB guidance, and he explained: "Killing one Jew far away from the field of battle is more effective than killing a hundred Jews on the field of battle, because it attracts more attention."

Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa alleged the existence of operation "SIG" (“Zionist Governments”) that was devised in 1972, to turn the whole Islamic world against the Israel and the United States. KGB chairman Yury Andropov allegedly explained to Pacepa that "a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States." According to Yuri Andropov citation alleged by Ion Mihai Pacepa, "the Islamic world was a waiting petri dish in which we could nurture a virulent strain of America-hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist-Leninist thought."

Defector Ion Mihai Pacepa alleged that the following "liberation" organizations have been established by the KGB: PLO, National Liberation Army of Bolivia (created in 1964 with help from Ernesto Che Guevara); the National Liberation Army of Colombia, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1969, and the Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia in 1975.

Supporting political movements

GRU alone spent more than $1 billion for propaganda and peace movements against Vietnam War, which was a "hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost", according to the allegations of GRU defector Stanislav Lunev . He alleged that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad". According to defector Oleg Kalugin, "the Soviet intelligence was really unparalleled. ... The KGB programs -- which would run all sorts of congresses, peace congresses, youth congresses, festivals, women's movements, trade union movements, campaigns against U.S. missiles in Europe, campaigns against neutron weapons, allegations that AIDS ... was invented by the CIA ... all sorts of forgeries and faked material -- targeted at politicians, the academic community, at the public at large."

Installing and undermining governments

According to the allegations of defector Oleg Gordievsky, after World War II Soviet intelligence organizations played key role in installing puppet Communist governments in Eastern Europe, Mongolia, People's Republic of China, North Korea, and later Afghanistan. Gordievsky alleged that, their strategy included mass elimination of opponents and establishment of subordinate secret services in all occupied countries KGB chairman Yuri Andropov was an architect of suppression of Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Prague Spring of 1968. According to claims of Yevgenia Albats, he insisted that "extreme measures" are necessary .

Some of the active measures were undertaken by the Soviet secret services against their own governments or Communist rulers. Russian historians Anton Antonov-Ovseenko and Edvard Radzinsky alleged that Stalin was killed by associates of NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria, based on the allegations of a former Stalin's body guard and circumstances of death. . According to claims of Yevgenia Albats, chief of the KGB Vladimir Semichastny was among the coup plotters against Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 . KGB chairman Yuri Andropov reportedly struggled for power with Leonid Brezhnev . Soviet coup attempt of 1991 against Mikhail Gorbachev was organized by KGB chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov. Gen. Viktor Barannikov, then the former State Security head, became one of the leaders of uprising against Boris Yeltsin during Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 . Finally, FSB chairman Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia after a surprising resignation of Boris Yeltsin in 1999.

According to the allegations of Andrei Soldatov and Irina Dorogan from Novaya Gazeta, current Russian intelligence organization FSB allegedly works to undermine governments of Baltic states and Georgia . During 2006 Georgian-Russian espionage controversy several Russian GRU officers were accused by Georgian authorities of preparations to commit sabotage and terrorist acts.

Icebreaker strategy

The term "Icebreaker" was coined by Russian writer and historian Victor Suvorov who argued that Stalin had planned to use Nazi Germany as a proxy (the “Icebreaker”) against the West. For this reason Stalin had provided significant material and political support to Hitler, and at the same time was preparing the Red Army to "liberate" the whole of Europe from Nazi occupation. In the end, Stalin was able to achieve some of his objectives by establishing Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, China, and North Korea.

Accroding to the allegations of Romanian defector Ion Mihai Pacepa, after the Korean War, Soviet Union transferred nuclear technology and weapons to the People's Republic of China as an adversary of the United States and NATO .

It is alleged by the website http://www.debka.com, that government of Vladimir Putin also promotes the Nuclear program of Iran to use Iran as "Icebreaker" against the West. Yossef Bodansky and some others alleged that Iran may have already purchased nuclear warheads

According to the website http://www.debka.com, whether or not Russian government implements the "Icebreaker" strategy, it apparently provides modern military technology to the outcast governments and terrorist organizations worldwide.

Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir alleged that Russia and Iran are providing weapons and money to the Taliban in 2006, according to his sources in Afganistan government

Active measures against "Main Adversary" according to Mitrokhin

A few examples of active measures against the United States have been described by Mitrokhin:

References

  1. ^ Mitrokhin, Vasili, Christopher Andrew (2000). The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. Gardners Books. ISBN 0-14-028487-7.
  2. Official US deception: Can it be trusted? By Daniel Schorr Christian Science Monitor March 01, 2002 edition retrived on February 22, 2007
  3. ^ Interview of Oleg Kalugin to CNN
  4. Yossef Bodansky The Secret History of the Iraq War (Notes: The historical record). Regan Books, 2005, ISBN 0-060-73680-1
  5. The Kremlin’s Killing Ways - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, November 28, 2006
  6. ^ Italian Panel: Soviets Behind Pope Attack
  7. "Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican" - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, January 25, 2007
  8. L'Unità, 1 December, 2006.
  9. The Guardian, 2 December 2006 Spy expert at centre of storm Template:En icon
  10. ^ Russian Footprints - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, August 24, 2006
  11. From Russia With Terror, FrontPageMagazine.com, interview with Ion Mihai Pacepa, March 1, 2004
  12. ^ Stanislav Lunev. Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1998. ISBN 0-89526-390-4
  13. Antonov-Ovseenko, Anton, Beria, Moscow, 1999
  14. Gordievsky, Oleg; Andrew, Christopher (1990). KGB: The Inside Story. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-48561-2.
  15. ^ Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia--Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5.
  16. Edvard Radzinsky Stalin : The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives (1997) ISBN 0-385-47954-9
  17. Vladimir Solovyov and Elena Klepikova (translated by Guy Daniels) Yuri Andropov, a secret passage into the Kremlin London : R. Hale, 1984. ISBN 0-709-01630-1
  18. Special services of Russian Federation work in the former Soviet Union (Russian) - by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Dorogan, Novaya Gazeta, 27 March, 2006.
  19. Moscow Accused of Backing Georgian Revolt - by Olga Allenova and Vladimir Novikov, Kommersant, Sep. 07, 2006.
  20. Tyrants and the Bomb - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review,October 17, 2006
  21. Iran Flaunts Low-Level Enrichment to Conceal High-Powered Weaponizaton Plant by DEBKAfile
  22. Russia and the Iranian Bomb - by J. R. Nyquist, Geopolitical Global Analysis
  23. Moscow Arms Assad with a Top-Flight Surface Missile by DEBKAfile
  24. Syrian Missile Sale Slots into Secret Russian Air Defense System for Iran by DEBKAfile
  25. Through Arms to Syria, Putin Challenges US Middle East Game Rules by DEBKAfile
  26. Russia secretly offered North Korea nuclear technology - by a Special Correspondent in Pyongyang and Michael Hirst, Telegraph, September 7, 2006.
  27. The Future of Pakistan: An Interview with Journalist Hamid Mir - by David Dastych, The New Media Journal, May 8, 2006.

External links

See also

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