MOSCOW, SPRUCED UP AND WARY, BRACES FOR 'OLYMPIC SABOTEURS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200860042-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: July 13, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200860042-9
~- ARTICLE AP~ /ARED
ON PAGE
NE`:W YORK TINES
13 JULY 1980
Moscow, Spruced: Upland Wary,
S
Braces for `ol rn c . a
By ANTHONY AUSTIN
i - - _ Special toTheNewYork Times
MOSCOW, July 12-Moscow isprepar- 'ordinarySoviet citizens" to administer
ing for the Olympics as though it is un- I a "fitting rebuff" to any unseemly
brace for an attack.,
Miles of peeling buildings have. been
painted yellow and pink and miles of
cracked roads have been repaved. Bare
patches have blossomed into flower beds
and stark streets have been lined with
trees. Early in the morning,' and again in
the evening, convoys of troops rumble
through the city, "storm workers" rush-
ing to the few Olympic sites that remain
xt
n
e
to be finished before the Games open
. world, a city on the brink of something
Saturday. unnamed but vaguely dangerous. Soviet
Thousands of- university students are officials, asked why such extraordinary
behind the counters of the Olympic Vil-. security precautions are considered nec-
lage and the Olympic press centers, essary, say they "do not want any inci
ready to answer questions from athletes dents."
II
abr..correspondents in English, French, A notice in the main Moscow post office,
says all packages addressed to Moscow
German, Spanish,,. Arabic or Japanese. - as well as to Leningrad, Tallinn, Kiev and,
Thousands more have been mobilized to Minsk - the other Olympic sites - must
r
act as guides and translators for tourists. be submitted open. The statute cited
Parks are ready to give band concerts, deals with the illegal use of explosives.,
theaters to regale. visitors with variety In view of the Munich Olympics, where
shows and plays, orchestras to fill .the l 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Arab
nights with classical music, pop groups to gunmen in 1972; it.is hard to question the
punctuate them with Soviet rock. From need for tight security. There is also
all over the country local troupes have
been brought in for weeks of unremitting
culture. "No other city hosting the Olym-
pic Games has ever been in such a state
of readiness as Moscow," exulted Tass,
the official press agency.
Not all the readiness is festive; some of
.it is grim.
An emptiness, a hush, has fallen over
the principal streets, the cumulative ef-
fect of weeks of an unavowed but obvious
i planned to undermine the Oloics withal
teams of of versrv agem; trair.TE
Zbigniew Brzezih kf e Bite Dose na-
tionaisecun'ty-r,-t'~e stow seern~'!
too fancfuto be advisebeliev ed by the very au-!
~
thoni`ies who plariEedit.
An hour-long television documentary
preac a same message tome L?onsof
Soviet viewers last Sunday. Entitled
"- Lies and Hatred," the program showed
ho-w-01 clever m`imons oi-the A. con- !
ceal anti-Soviet books arid p mohiets, in-
Some cities, among them Gorky, have _exQiosives in secret compaenfs oI
stooped issuing train tickets to Moscow cars and specialty tailored crothing ll.
until Aug. 5 except for Moscow residents this said-the commentator tninous
or people with a special need to go to the ic.`tgroun music,is: pail of aTot to am-
capital. Other cities have announced
ploy Zionist and tascisfg_U utciu rig
wholesale cancellations of train service ( Russian emigre organizations, tI._ L
o conduct
to Moscow from July 18 to Aug. 8. es Ionage and wa a 1?Sy cho.o car-
'Don't W apt Any Incidents' tare in . w during the Games.
The precautions leave visitors to Mos- Air of Border Checkpoint
. 1
cow with the feeling that they are in one A
O
measures in Moscow have been taken
with more than' errorism in mind.'
Almost all dissidents have been cleared
out - arrested or banished or persuaded
to go on vacation - during the cleanup
that began months ago. Schoolchildren
are away in summer camps - "as
" say the authorities, although par-
usual
,
ents report a good deal more than the
usual pressure to get the youngsters out
police campaign to thin out traffic during 300,000 Soviet Tourists ' - -
the Olympics by- confiscating license
plates for the slightest infraction. The po-
ice have also begun barring drivers with
i91EMoscow.registration papers from en-
tering the capital without special passes.
Pairs: of policemen posted each hun-
yards along streets stop drivers at
every chance. Security men race about in
cars, issuing. loud, harsh. orders through
'i';nlllhorns,- They also crowd the tree-lined
sidewalks where people. like to rest on
" 'benches.'- They gather- before the
Rossiya and Kosmos Hotels, where,3,000
Ifozle'grv}ournalists will be staying, giving
the entrances an off-limits.look and scar-
g?off the'Muscovites who usually han g
about iA front of tourist hotels.:.
Tf~..v Lnf the'policemen have been
-' - -- - rn
Vfne,i Russians tell their. foreign friends. ?;them.. "M Godl " exclaimed-a Western
many Moscow policemen have been put . di-plomat, ."I" in.c a auulonties are
in plain clothes. If past experience is any reallyafraid." When os ovs aya
guide, they can be expected to mingle ; Pravda; t~ ewspaper of the Moscow .
_rty with Olympic crowds and step forward as i ! Province_Communist Pa sat in n A ri[
ithathe. Cent,TYritel igence envy
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pr.ss
six stories framing a plaza with a foun-
tain - was designed as a pleasant, mod-
ern expanse. But the wire fence, the iron
gates,. the police huts and booths give its
gray concrete the air of a border check-
point. Western journalists checked
through the electronic metal detectors
and X-ray machines- the first time such
security procedures have been imposed
at an Olympic press center-must sub-
mit books and other written matter for in-
spection. The same checks are in force at
the airport and in the hotels housing jour-
nalists.
At the Olympic Village on the city's
outskirts, the security is even tighter.
Tall wire mesh stretches along a newt
highway. A young soldier patrolling the
fence, a Kalashnikov rifle slung across
his back, orders a pair of hapless pedes-
-trians s to the other side of the road.
special Olympic accreditation cards. In
the newly built Cultural Center the cards
are exchanged for special passes and the
journalists are allowed, one by one, to go
through a door into a room with the se-
curity devices. A reporter with a small
Japanese camera has to put that, too,--
through the X-ray machine. On the other
side, he has to show how the camera
works - pull back the lever and press the
shutter button - as though the police
want to make sure it does not fire bullets
Moscow for- the Olympics will be shep-
herded around :in' closely controlled
groups- But there are still the, people of
Moscow to worry about. : -
Security officials are visiting all major
places of work and study to lecture on the
need for vigilance against foreign subver-
sion. They tell their audiences what nasty
political questions may be flung at them
by "Olympic saboteurs" and how to put
or poisoned darts.
the troublemakers in their place. They in-
struct them on what else to expect -
strips of cloth that sprout slogans when
unrolled and held aloft. chewing gum for
children. spiced with poison or. venereal
disease, andother dirty tricks.. ,
It is surprising to hear the accounts of
heavily policed cities in the thecentenewly in co let own ownm csco
w -YMP its