Word: kgb
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Among the Soviets sent packing were Nikolai Chetverikov, the third-ranking diplomat at the Soviet embassy, who was considered to be the head of all KGB activities in France; Oleg Shirokov, bureau chief of the official press agency TASS; and Vladimir Kulikovskikh, a TASS reporter. Forty of the group held diplomatic passports. Said a member of France's counterespionage agency, the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST): "Ten or 15 years ago, the Soviets instructed their young agents that France was no problem. Well, all that has changed. Now they'll have to send their best recruits...
TIME has confirmed that Mantarov gave French officials an account charging that the KGB ordered the papal assassination. TIME has also learned that Mantarov did not have diplomatic status at the Bulgarian embassy; he was, in fact, a technician attached to the commercial section. And at least one important detail in the Times story may be wrong: Bulgarian émigrés living in Paris insist that Mantarov defected on April 11, 1981, not the following July. If the earlier date is correct, Mantarov would have defected before the assassination attempt. The timing is crucial, since Mantarov then could have...
Even though it is not known when Mantarov told French authorities about the alleged KGB involvement, Paris has been remarkably stingy in sharing its information. The French are believed to have briefed Washington only after they knew that what Mantarov had to say was going to be made public. Nor does it appear that the French told Italian authorities about Mantarov, despite the fact that Italian Judge Ilario Martella has been conducting a meticulous investigation into the assassination attempt for the past 17 months. When TIME Rome Correspondent Barry Kalb asked Martella last week if he had been told about...
Drawing on years of experience in monitoring the decline of Brezhnev, Kremlin watchers were quick to pick up telltale clues that something might be amiss with Andropov. During his first four months in office, the onetime KGB chief has lost weight. He has kept to a rigorous daily schedule, but after meeting with a delegation from Mozambique on March 2, he seemed to adopt an even lower profile than usual. Curiosity grew when TASS failed to print a summary of the weekly meeting of the ruling Politburo, as has been the custom recently, a possible indication that the gathering...
Gromyko is the second top-level deputy to Tikhonov who has been appointed under Andropov. At a meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet last November, onetime Azerbaijan KGB Chief and Party Leader Geidar Aliyev, 59, was also moved into the government's ruling inner circle. Gromyko's elevation to the same rank as Aliyev may have been intended to check the ambitious Azerbaijani...