EN GARDE FOR OLYMPICS MOSCOW BRINGS IN TROOPS TO MAN TIGHT SECURITY SYSTEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200860051-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: July 1, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200860051-9
ARTICLE APPEAR
ON PAGE_-____
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
1 July 1980
Moscow brings in
troops to man.
tight security-system-1
By David K. Wilds- 7 y i a y
The Christian Science Monitor-
, _
Metal :3 s i :t ~ ;o-%r Moscow
detectors, and.. X-ray machines
(made in the United'States),'khaki-clad sol-
`' irrratTc rifles, electronictrip-bearrii" uaiaing
no man's land outside tall wire fences, tens of
thousands of police patrolling in pairs be-
neath huge posters of. smiling "Misha" bears.
All are part of anunprecedented security
-screen clamped down around Olympic sites,
and hotels on the eve of the 1980 games..
Veteran Western residents say they have
never seen anything like it in peacetime in
Moscow or other Soviet cities. "? ~,- -
It reflects several facets of the Soviet char-
acter, determination to avoid 'any Munich-
style terrorism or incidents as Moscow be-'
comes the first communist city ever to host an
.Olympics Games;.- traditional suspicion - of
.outsiders-, KGB certainty that the CIA and
other Western agencies are using the tourist
influx to conceal spies;. and a vigorous effort
to break as much contact as possible between
ordinary Soviet.??citizens and tourists at the
gleaming.. ultramodern Olympic Village,
which is light-years ahead of the comfort en-
joyed by the average citizen here.. -Police pay particular attention to reading
matter. and notebooks of correspondents and
,tourists~..Already,some items have been'
,confiscated J !--604, Z!,
Here's the airport-type procedure I have to
go through to. enter the-huge Olympic press
center building, which has just been opened:
Outside one of.the.three-main entrances,
two policemen studiously.compare my face
with the picture on my accreditation card.
.-? Inside a curtained entryway. Uput my
*briefcase on. a moving belt and see it disap-
pear into the - depths of, an X-ray. machine
,made by a'company in Cambridge, Mass. .1
take out my keys and pens and other metal
objects and~put themin a plastic tray.: ?:,;~? .:
I.step through the archway of the metal--
detector (called "Friskem" and made- by a-
Delaware firm), wait for the all-clear, pick up
my briefcase, and step into . the 7 interior
courtyard ` _ -..
Police patrol in pairs both around the
courtyard and in the corridors of the press
center itself, which is-vast and well equipped.
Correspondents who were in Munich in 1972.
and Montreal in 1976 say no such security'sur
rounded press centers there.-
When -I -visited the Olympic Village with
the Newsweek- correspondent here, ; we first'
saw- a' Soviet infantryman. armed-.with, a
Kalashnikov stationed every 100 yards or so
-along the bead-high wire fence enclosing the
entire area.
Behind the soldiers were wooden barriers,
and between the barriers and the fence sets of
a A, etrcmic-beam: relay-:-points-enclosed -ia-
sma11 towers made bf green plastic. P emur
ably the beams are activated at night.'. ?
.nside a small wooden but,we surrendered
our precious accreditation cards. In return
we received special passes for the village only.
and walked through a narrow corridor of wire
fences, watched by a dozen soldiers and offi-
c6rs. to the cultural center.-
-,From there we were permitted through an-
other checkpoint into the shopping and cafete-
ria. . area. -With.its gleaming stores., repair.
,-shops, displays of- brightly coloredsports
equipment, and giant cafeteria, it is a piece of
the Western world set down in green fields in
a Moscow suburb.:
A young blond plainclothes man began fol.;
lowing us, a walkie-talkie set under his coat:
:Every step we took was watched by dozens of
soldiers with communications gear in band,
police, and plainclothes agents.
When .visiting correspondents check into
-theirhotels;.they go through metal detectors
and X-ray machines,. and then their bags are
reading matenal ::..r
At the press center one British journalist
had-. his notebook- leafed through.: AA comma=7
nist correspondent had - his notebook: taken-
,-away, colleagues report.
Tens of thousands of militiamen (police);
have been brought into Moscow from outlying
areas: -Auxiliary police with red. armbands,
mainly young people, patrol Moscow's gleam-
ing; modern subway system. For each day
they patrol, an extra day Is,addedto their an-
-nual vacations from their regular jobs ='a
bonus apparently causing many to volunteer
withalacrity: ers> ~f ~W::~-r, ~.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200860051-9