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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 secret police services (Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, KGB, GRU, FSB, and SVR) to influence a course of world events [1], in addition to collecting intelligence. "Active measures" can be used abroad or domestically. They include disinformation, propaganda, counterfeiting official documents, and political repressions.

"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.

"Active measures" was a system of special courses taught in the Andropov Institute of 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." [2]

Puppet rebel forces

Trust operation

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". Main success of Trust was the luring of Boris Savinkov and Sidney Reilly into the Soviet Union where they have been arrested and executed.

Basmachi revolt

During Basmachi Revolt in Central Asia, special military detachments were masqueraded as Basmachi forces and received support from British and Turkish intelligence services. Operations of these detachments facilitated collapse of Basmachi movement and led to assassination of Enver Pasha [3]

Operations against liberation movements after World War II

Soon after World War II, various ethnic militant groups in the Baltic States and Poland resisted Communist occupation. Many NKVD agents and coopting nationalist leaders were sent to join and penetrate the nationalist movements. Many puppet rebel forces were created by the NKVD and permitted to attack local Soviet authorities to gain credibility and exfiltrate senior NKVD agents to the West. [3]

Russian apartment bombings

In September 4 1999 a series of four Russian apartment bombings has began. Three FSB agents were caught while planting a large bomb at the basement of an apartment complex in the town of Ryazan in September 22. That was last of the bombings. Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Rushailo congratulated police with preventing the terrorist act, but FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev had declared that the incident was a training exercise just an hour later, when he had learned that the FSB agents are caught.

Next day, Boris Yeltsin received a demand from 24 Russian governors to transfer all state powers to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, according to Sergei Yushenkov [4] Second Chechen War began in September 24. This war made Prime Minister Vladimir Putin very popular, although he was previously unknown to the public, and helped him to win a landslide victory in the presidential elections in March 26 2000.

That was a successful coup d'état organized by the FSB to bring Vladimir Putin to power, according to former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, lawmaker Sergei Yushenkov, and journalist David Satter, a Johns Hopkins University and Hoover Institute scholar [5] [4] [6]. All attempts to independently investigate the Russian apartment bombings were unsuccessful. Journalist Artyom Borovik died in a suspicious plane crash. Vice-chairman of Sergei Kovalev commission created to investigate the bombings Sergei Yushenkov was assassinated. Another member of this commission Yuri Shchekochikhin died presumably from poisoning by thallium. Investigator Mikhail Trepashkin hired by relatives of victims was arrested and convicted by Russian authorities for allegedly disclosing state secrets.

Dagestan War

Another provocation designed to start the Second Chechen War and bring Vladimir Putin to power was possibly Dagestan War initiated by terrorist Shamil Basayev. It was reported that Alexander Voloshin from Yeltsin administration paid money to Basayev to stage the Dagestan War [7] [8] [9], that Basaev worked for Russian GRU at this time [10] [11] [12], and that Russian military forces provided safe passage for Islamic fighters back to Chechnya from Dagestan [13]

Moscow theater hostage crisis

Former FSB officer Aleksander Litvinenko and investigator Mikhail Trepashkin alleged that Moscow theater hostage crisis was organized by Chechen FSB agents [14] [15]. Yulia Latynina and other journalists accused FSB of staging many smaller terrorism acts, such as market place bombing in the city of Astrakhan, bus stops bombings in the sity of Voronezh, the blowing up the Moscow-Grozny train [16] [17]. These claims have been denied by FSB [citation needed].

Puppet rebel forces in Chechnya

Many journalists and workers of international NGOs were kidnapped by FSB-affiliated forces in Chechnya who pretended to be Chechen terrorists: Andrei Babitsky from Radio Free Europe, Arjan Erkel and Kenneth Glack from Doctors Without Borders, and others [18].

Political assassinations

The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc 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 provides some additional 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." [19]

The second President of Afghanistan Hafizullah Amin was killed by KGB OSNAZ forces. All elected and appointed presidents of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria including Dzhokhar Dudaev, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, Aslan Maskhadov, and Abdul-Khalim Saidullaev were killed by FSB and affiliated forces.

Other widely publicized cases are murders of Russian communist Leon Trotsky and Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov.

There were also allegations that the KGB was behind the assassination attempt against the Pope John Paul II in 1981. The 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 [20] [21] 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." [20] The Italian Mitrokhin commission received criticism during and after its existence [22]. 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. [23]

Promotion of terrorism worldwide

KGB General Aleksandr Sakharovsky once said: "In today’s world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon." [24] He also claimed that "Airplane hijacking is my own invention". In 1969 alone 82 planes were hijacked worldwide by the KGB-financed PLO. [24] George Habash, who worked under KGB guidance, 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." [24]

Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa described operation "SIG" (“Zionist Governments”) that was devised in 1972, to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the United States. KGB chairman Yury Andropov 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, "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." [24]

The following liberation organizations have been allegedly 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 (created in 1965 with help from Fidel Castro), Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1969, and the Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia in 1975. [25]

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 GRU defector Stanislav Lunev [26]. He claimed that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad". [26] According to 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 -- [were] targeted at politicians, the academic community, at the public at large." [2]

Installing and undermining governments

After World War II Soviet secret police organizations played key role in installing puppet Communist governments in Eastern Europe, Mongolia, People's Republic of China, North Korea, and later Afganistan. Their strategy included mass political repressions and establishment of subordinate secret services in all occupied countries [27] [28] KGB chairman Yuri Andropov was an architect of supression of Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Prague Spring of 1968. He insisted that "extreme measures" are necessary [29].

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 described that Stalin was killed by associates of NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria, based on the interviews of a former Stalin's body guard and circumstancial evidence. [30]. Chief of the KGB Vladimir Semichastny was among the plotters against Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 [29]. KGB chairman Yuri Andropov reportedly struggled for power with Leonid Brezhnev [31]. Soviet coup attempt of 1991 against Mikhail Gorbachev was organized by KGB chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov. [29] 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 [29]. Finally, FSB chairman Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia after a surprising resignation of Boris Yeltsin in 1999.

Current Russian secret police organization FSB allegedly works to undermine governments of Baltic states [32] and Georgia [33]. 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.

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 [34].

It has been reported that Russian government provides modern military technology to Syria, Iran, North Korea and terrorist organizations worldwide. [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]

Modern Russian-made anti-tank weapons played significant role in Hezbollah operations against Israel Defense Forces during 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. It was noted that "Israel has been attacked with Soviet Kalashnikovs and Katyushas, Soviet-designed Fajr-1 and Fajr-3 rockets, Soviet AT-5 Spandrel antitank missiles and Kornet antitank rockets." [24]

Active measures against "Main Adversary"

A few examples of active measures against the United States were described in Mitrokhin Archive [1]:

References

  1. ^ a b Mitrokhin, Vasili, Christopher Andrew (2000). The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. Gardners Books. ISBN 0-14-028487-7.
  2. ^ a b Interview of Oleg Kalugin to CNN
  3. ^ a b Yossef Bodansky The Secret History of the Iraq War (Notes: The historical record). Regan Books, 2005, ISBN 0-060-73680-1
  4. ^ a b Sergei Yushenkov: That was a coup in 1999.
  5. ^ Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia : Terror from within. New York 2002. ISBN 1-56171-938-2.
  6. ^ David Satter. Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State. Yale University Press. 2003. ISBN 0-300-09892-8.
  7. ^ The Second Russo-Chechen War Two Years On - by John B. Dunlop, ACPC, October 17, 2001
  8. ^ Paul Klebnikov: Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism, ISBN 0-15-601330-4
  9. ^ The Operation "Successor" by Vladimir Pribylovsky and Yuriy Felshtinsky (in Russian).
  10. ^ Western leaders betray Aslan Maskhadov - by Andre Glucksmann. Prima-News, March 11, 2005
  11. ^ Checehn Parliamentary speaker: Basaev was GRU officer The Jamestown Foundation, September 08, 2006
  12. ^ Analysis: Has Chechnya's Strongman Signed His Own Death Warrant? - by Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, March 1, 2005
  13. ^ Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya
  14. ^ Lazaredes, Nick (04 June 2003). "Terrorism takes front stage — Russia's theatre siege". SBS. Retrieved 2006-11-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Template:Ru icon"М. Трепашкин: «Создана очень серьезная группа»". Chechen Press State News Agency. 1 December, 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Special services stage undermining activities - by Yulia Latynina, Novaya Gazeta, 03 April, 2006.
  17. ^ The marketplace was blown up by photorobots by Vjacheslav Izmailov, Novaya Gazeta, 07 November, 2005.
  18. ^ Special services of delivery (Russian) - by Vyacheslav Ismailov, Novaya Gazeta 27 January, 2005
  19. ^ The Kremlin’s Killing Ways - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, November 28, 2006
  20. ^ a b Italian Panel: Soviets Behind Pope Attack
  21. ^ "Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican" - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, January 25, 2007
  22. ^ L'Unità, 1 December, 2006.
  23. ^ The Guardian, 2 December 2006 Spy expert at centre of storm Template:En icon
  24. ^ a b c d e Russian Footprints - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, August 24, 2006
  25. ^ From Russia With Terror, FrontPageMagazine.com, interview with Ion Mihai Pacepa, March 1, 2004
  26. ^ a b Stanislav Lunev. Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1998. ISBN 0-89526-390-4
  27. ^ Antonov-Ovseenko, Anton, Beria, Moscow, 1999
  28. ^ Gordievsky, Oleg; Andrew, Christopher (1990). KGB: The Inside Story. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-48561-2.
  29. ^ a b c d 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.
  30. ^ Edvard Radzinsky Stalin : The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives (1997) ISBN 0-385-47954-9
  31. ^ 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
  32. ^ Special services of Russian Federation work in the former Soviet Union (Russian) - by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Dorogan, Novaya Gazeta, 27 March, 2006.
  33. ^ Moscow Accused of Backing Georgian Revolt - by Olga Allenova and Vladimir Novikov, Kommersant, Sep. 07, 2006.
  34. ^ Tyrants and the Bomb - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review,October 17, 2006
  35. ^ Moscow Arms Assad with a Top-Flight Surface Missile by DEBKAfile
  36. ^ Syrian Missile Sale Slots into Secret Russian Air Defense System for Iran by DEBKAfile
  37. ^ Through Arms to Syria, Putin Challenges US Middle East Game Rules by DEBKAfile
  38. ^ Russia secretly offered North Korea nuclear technology - by a Special Correspondent in Pyongyang and Michael Hirst, Telegraph, September 7, 2006.
  39. ^ Iran Flaunts Low-Level Enrichment to Conceal High-Powered Weaponizaton Plant by DEBKAfile
  40. ^ Russia and the Iranian Bomb - by J. R. Nyquist, Geopolitical Global Analysis

See also

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