HABITS OF THE SOVIET DINOSAUR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201700006-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 22, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201700006-7
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WASHINGTON STAR
22 NOVEMBER 1980
,_ Asa gradually emerging Reagan
administration prepares to take over
responsibility. for dealing with the
septuagenarians in the Kremlin, it
is faced.' with disturbing :evidence ..
that, in spite of its massive espionage
apparatus,. the Soviet regime at the
top may be.dangerously out of.touch.,,
with.
.: Public testimony from recent de '
fectors to the West from the Russian -
bureaucratic elite. suggests that they-.
Politburo is much less well equipped
to reach sober and accurate judg-
men&on the significance of world '
events than was previously thought
by many American Kremlinologists. '
Altliouglr there was always ttie
fear that ideological preconceptions
exercised a distorting effect on So-
viet-decision-making. the hope
flourished that policy recommenda-
tions before'they reached thetop
were rendered more realistic by the
array of 304 talented analytical ex
pertsassembled in Georgii Arbatov's
Institute of. the United States and
Canada,. reporting. directly tp the .
Kremlin from. its prestigious loco
tion..in-:the Academy of Sciences.
Although she had high'reaardi
for Arbatov's own intelligence she
became convinced that his institute
was little more than a front for a
complex disinformation and espi-
onage operation designed "to get as
much as possible - politically and
materially - out.of.the. policy of de-'
.Sore disturbingly, he. describes
the KGB as so riddled with nepotism
and careerist, ambition that much.
of thepolitical.repoorting sent back..
to Moscow was deliberately skewed
to fit the ideological: preconceptions
By masquerading"as if it was an In
addition, the FBI and the CIA..
American. think tank like the have in-. the last year succeeded in
Brookings Institution, it has been .engineering the defection of two of-.
quitesuccessful inpersuadingaaen _the -most significant KGB officers
eration of visiting American- offi ever_to-switch sides;-They are still
,cials and scholars that there are in. . under security wraps, but according
fact.iational= doves in the Kremlin to their testimony the KGB's passion
whose: beneficent influence on'So- "for stealing c.assifiedU.S.policy dot .
vier policy may.-be 'undermined if I ument3. starsIrons" the ?r'eaiizatio'n :;
the US; reacts too strongly to Soviet] that this. is..the only.,safe luny of.`;
'aggressive moves., bringing unpalatable facts to the
1;With=the-professional staff of the .Kremlin's attehtion. The documents.
institute heavily infiltrated by KGB speak for themselves ar-d do not im
agents;:all staffers have to cooperate :-. plicate the messenger in any critical
with the'KGB in supplying-detailed judgl e>ztof the Kreailifi's ,perfor ':
t
information on the personal habits .! mance
and vulnerabilities of their Ameri Faced with this heavily-armored
can. 'contacts in order to set them but blinkered dinosaur in Moscow,
'tip for.. recruitment'.By the appear- Ronald Reagan is certainly right. to-
=ante of diligent cooperation, Galin a have called ier "a margin. of safety"t
finally`won permission -to- travel in our det c. ve military prepara
abroad and used the occasion to de tions. .. ,?. ;
.Having lost all fa th in the Soviet ry
system and its ideology; Galina. felt.
compelled to escape out of "black
boredom." Looking back, she warns,
"The Soviet Union.is like a huge,
primitive dinosaur, with a small
brain\but armed from top to tail..
A. Mass of Information
If the Arbato'. institute can no
longer be, counted on ..as a: re-
straining influence on Soviet policy,
ther remains-the ironic hope that
the sheer scale. of Soviet. espionage
supplies the Kremlin-with enough
factually-accurate information to re-
duce the dander-- of miscalculation
or, iideological,- self-deception., But
even here, recent testimony 'from
highly-placed-KGB. defectors is not
reassuring. =
In a series of interviews with The
`imes of London: earlier this year,.
Ilya Dzhirkvelov, who defected to
the British, described how as a KGB.
officer het served in -Africa.- There,
he saw the rigid application of corn
munist doctrine to complex African
: tribal'disputes. result in such disas-
-ter that only -the. introduction of
Cuban.; troops'could save the" day,
as in Angola and Ethiopia..
.
classifed`.secret "tie " bfoseow.` She`-."
states," SVe'd'be lucky-if ;more. than
2 ner cent of what we ,wrote was
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
A-:First-Hand View ". .
.Carter officials have been badly
shaken in this Hopeful assumption
by an article in the October, issue
of The Atlantic. It is a-fascinating
in terview with a 3a"-year-old.woman,
Galina Orionova, who?-defected last
- year in London. after working fort.
1Qyears'asa professional experton
the staff of Arbatov's institute: Her - .
first-hand. revelations are devastat-
ring to the myth that this institute '
can-in any way be relied on to mod-
erate extreme views in the,Kremlin.
According to Galina; the institute
is staffed.lsrgely by the privileged
offspring of. the Moscow party elite,
and the only. time they all show up
for work isou payday. The research
_gffort is confined to paraphrasing
-American publications. -which-'.
sold openly in the U.S. are
though
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