QUICK SOVIET DENIAL OF SPY REPORT HEIGHTENS BRITAIN'S FEAR FOR BASES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100080004-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 22, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/14: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100080004-2
?( F S1 IVLL'
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
22 January 1986
Quick Soviet denial of spy repo
heightens Britain's fear for bases
By Peter Almond
LONDON - The Soviet Union,
with uncharacteristic speed and ve-
hemence, has hotly denied a report
in~the authoritative Jane's Defence
Weekly that its spies have been op-
erating among the women protest-
ing storage of Cruise missiles out-
side Greenham Common.
"This is a malicious and
disgusting invention which we cate-
gorically refute," said Soviet Em-
bassy press attache Gennadi
Shabannikov in a TV interview. But
he declined to deny the presence of
-'spetsnaz" - Soviet special com-
mando forces - in Britain.
The quick Soviet response sur-
prised Defense Ministry officials
and other analysts, who suggested
that it may have hit uncomfortably
close to the truth. One military ana-
lyst proferred one of Shakespeare's
famous lines: "Me thinks he doth
protest too much"
The women protesting at Green-
ham yesterday dismissed the report
as sheer fantasy. But Jane's editors
stood by their story.
The report is based on interviews
with Yossef Bodanskv, a consultant
on Soviet affairs to the U.S. Pentagon
and State De artment w o was re-
ported to have talked to a number of
Soviet defectors after debriefing.-
by U.S. intelligence officials
Geoffre Manners, the weekly
magazine's new- a itor sat r
Bodansky's information was double-
checked with Britis intelligence o1
before it was used.
Last September t e British gov-
ernment showed how seriously it
takes any threat to its bases by hold-
ing Exercise Brave Defender. Car-
ried out by approximately 130,000
troops, Brave Defender was the big-
gest military maneuver in mainland
Britain since World War II.
The operation involved Britain's
Territorial Army, a force similar to
that of the U.S. National Guard, and
was aimed specifically at repelling
commando attacks.
The Soviet's special commando
forces are estimated to number at
least 30,000 and are believed to in-
clude athletes of Olympic caliber
who reconnoiter future targets dur-
ing their trips abroad. Among their
missions is the targeting and de-
struction of NATO command cen-
ters and air bases.
The Jane's report claimed that
three to six Soviet-trained agents
from Warsaw Pact and Western Eu-
ropean countries - including Brit-
ain - have been present with the
Greenham women at all times since
the arrival of Tomahawk Cruise mis-
siles in December 1983.
The report in Jane's said the fe-
male agents were trained in camps
in the Carpathian, Ural and Volga
military districts, which include
mock-ups of the Greenham Com-
mon base. There has been a large
rotation of agents into and out of the
"peace camps," in order to give more
of them field experience, the report
said.
The Soviet agents are re orted to
be under the command of the GRU,
the intelligence directorate of the
Soviet General Staff, w N77 a so
directs the spetsnaz forces. Their
initial mission, said Jane's, was to
incite protesters in order to test base
defenses, but they are now trained to
attack the base in pre-emptive
strikes and to act as beacons for
other attacking Soviet agents or air-
borne troops.
There have been several reported
break-ins at the base, and women
protesting it Greenham claim to
have gotten through to the closely
guarded missile bunkers. Military
officials deny this, although as a
matter of policy they refuse to com-
ment on security.
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/14: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100080004-2