US intelligence prides itself on its successful sabotages
Russian gas pipelines have long been subject to sabotage. Already during their construction, the Americans organized explosions, and the CIA not only does not deny, but is even openly proud of the successful operations, writes “Trud”.
Vladimir Vetrov is a KGB officer who has been working in Paris since 1965 under the guise of an engineer of the Soviet trade mission. His real place of work is Directorate “T”, part of the First Main Directorate of the KGB, which is responsible for intelligence work abroad.
The Soviet Union needs foreign technology to develop, but the West refuses to share secrets. Therefore, T office officials secretly collect scientific and technical developments around the world, recruiting foreign engineers and scientists.
“engineer” error
Vetrov met with Jacques Prevost, an employee of the company Thomson-CSF, which is engaged in the production of military electronics. But an extremely unpleasant story happens with Vetrov. Drunk, he crashed his official car, and for damaging state property he was threatened with expulsion from the KGB and a ban on traveling abroad. In a panic, he runs to Jacques Prevost, who lends him money to repair the car, but laying a sneaky trap for the Russian.
In the summer of 1981, a G7 summit was held in Ottawa, where French President François Mitterrand revealed to his counterpart Ronald Reagan that French intelligence was in contact with a high-ranking KGB officer, Vladimir Vetrov. According to Vetrov’s accounts, Moscow organized a large-scale campaign of industrial espionage.
Since some of this work involved the United States, the French secret services were willing to hand over the Vetrov materials to the CIA. After Reagan’s approval, CIA chief William Casey launched a secret program that included the sale of perishable equipment to the Soviet Union – modified electronic components and defective turbines.
Fakes
William Casey does not see his work at the CIA as routine and aims to end the Soviet Union. One of the main points in his strategy is the economic weakening of the USSR. Official KGB documents obtained by Vetrov show how dependent the Union is on foreign technology. This is where Casey decides to strike. In early 1982, he presented Reagan with a report prepared by the former director of international economics at the US National Security Council, Gus Weiss.
“The essence of the idea is this: we do not prevent the USSR from stealing or secretly buying our technology and equipment, but we ‘modify’ them in such a way that they later turn out to be inoperable. In short, we’re going to bring a lot of chaos and disorder,” Weiss announces.
Very soon the program gives results. Target number one is the Urengoy-Pomari-Uzhhorod gas pipeline under construction. Stretching from Siberia to the Soviet-Czechoslovak border, it then connects to the Western European gas system that goes to France, Italy and West Germany. The pipeline should flood the USSR with currency.
Reagan’s attempts to persuade European leaders to withdraw from the Soviet gas project failed, however. The French and British are making millions supplying pipeline equipment, and for the Germans, cheap “red gas” is vital to the development of their economy, whose growth rate is beginning to worry the Americans.
First on the list of Soviet demands was oil and gas equipment designed to operate the new gas pipeline to Europe. Since these technologies could not be obtained from the United States, the KGB obtained the software from a Canadian firm.
“The CIA created an automated control program in such a way that over time the equipment failed: changing the speed of the pumps and the parameters of the valves created excessive pressure on the seams of the pipeline,” wrote David Hoffman, of the CIA.
Pipes on sight
The result of this “modification” program was an explosion in the Urengoy-Surgut-Chelyabinsk section of the gas pipeline. It was without human casualties, but caused significant damage to the Soviet economy. The Russians later realize they have stolen a fake, but what can they do? In Russia, there are no official comments about the gas pipeline accident. Therefore, many doubt that such a thing can happen.
But there are other CIA attacks on Soviet gas pipelines: The Casey Plan called for massive attacks on Soviet gas and oil production facilities in Afghanistan. The gas pipeline from Shibargan to the Soviet border is particularly attractive. Lying three feet underground and running under the Amu Darya, it is a very important economic target because it provides fuel for the industry of Soviet Central Asia.
Mujahideen blew up the gas pipeline in several places and fired rockets at multiple natural gas facilities, causing two large fires that lasted several days.
There is another, more widespread version of the emergency situation of the Urengoy-Pomari-Uzhhorod gas pipeline, Komsomolskaya Pravda insists on this: “In June 1982, an explosion with a force of three kilotons went off in Siberia.
At first the Americans were alarmed, deciding it was a nuclear charge. But the electromagnetic pulse that should be in such cases was not recorded by their spy satellites. Soon the White House received clarification from the director of the CIA: everything is fine, the explosion is our work. That is, once we have not only an explosion of a gas pipeline by the Americans, but a nuclear attack almost started after that.”
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