SOVIETS INCREASING THEIR GRIP ON PRESS IN GREECE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100650001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 7, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100650001-2
tSTAT
ARTICLE APP D
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
7 May 1987
Soviets increasing their gnp on
press in Greece
R y Andrew Borowiec
E WASHINGTON TIMES
ATHENS, Greece - The first locally
produced issue of the Soviet propaganda
organ New Times rolled off Greek
presses yesterday, causing Western con-
cern about the growth of Soviet disinfor-
mation in this strategic NATO country.
Diplomatic sources said that fully 65
percent of the Greek daily newspaper
circulation is either paid or influenced by
Soviet agents.
According to journalist Paul Anastasi,
who has played a significant role in ex-
posing Moscow's role here, "Greece is
the main target of Soviet disinformation
in Western Europe. Here anti-
Americanism is cultivated by the press"
Mr. Anastasi said that while Soviet in-
fluence is growing within the ruling Pan-
hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK),
the "Greek-American lobby, the most
powerful foreign policy instrument, was
being weakened."
With the publication of New Times,
Greece became the 130th country to
print or distribute the organ supervised
by the KGB disinformation apparatus.
Greece is considered a vital link in the
defense of NATO's southeastern flank
and is the home of four major U.S. bases.
Other publications identified with So-
viet propaganda have been active here
for some time. Foremost among them is
the tabloid Ethnos, which is deadlocked
in a libel battle with London's respected
Economist magazine over accusations of
Soviet links.
The Economist was unable to prove
that Ethnos was launched with a Soviet
grant of $1.8 million. But it insisted in
court that the Greek daily "is the
mouthpiece of a communist and totalitar-
ian state's machine."
Although the London jury did not
reach a decision, the trial turned out to
be the strongest legal presentation of the
Soviet Union's manipulation of the press.
Other Greek publications that follow
the Moscow line are Proti, Vima and the
satirical weekly Pondiki. Also available
here is the Nicaraguan publication
Soberania, from which some leftist pa-
pers take material prepared by the KGB.
The degree of artificially fueled anti-
Americanism is such that the U.S. Em-
bassy in Athens, in a reversal of policy,
recently began to issue formal denials of
various printed allegations. One such de-
nial concerned the claim by Eleftheros
Logos that during the recent Greco-
TUrkish crisis in the Aegean Sea the U.S.
communications base at Nea Makri
jammed Greek radar and interfered in
Greek warships' radio traffic.
Disinformation in Greece is under
overall supervision of Soviet Ambassa-
dor Viktor Stukhalin, intelligence
sources say. An estimated 30 KGB and
GRU (military intelligence) agents are
assigned to the embassy's Commercial
Section. Their primary tasks are techno-
logical espionage and press contacts.
Soviet-hired agents are reportedly ac-
tive in the Greek armed forces. Last year
three such agents reported by a GRU
defector were arrested. Two have already
been acquitted, reportedly following in-
tervention by socialist Prime Minister
Andreas Papandreou.
During the London libel case, lawyers
for Ethnos claimed that the daily was not
manipulated by Moscow but that its pro-
Soviet line reflected the attitude of its
readership. It also claimed full commit-
ment to Mr. Papandreou's government.
Started in 1981 by wealthy rightist-
turned-socialist George Bobolas, Ethnos
at one stage reached the circulation of
202,000 - roughly one-fourth of the
press run of Greek dailies. Ethnos re-
cently lost some of its readership when
the Communist Party launched the daily
Proti.
According to political analysts here,
the Soviet Union feels that Greece is par-
ticularly prone to its propaganda offen-
sive. The reasons are constant feuding
between Greece and its Western allies
and partners, conflict with Turkey and
the stain of U.S. support for the "junta of
colonels" that ruled the country between
1967 and 1974.
The continuing'Ilirkish military pres-
ence on the east Mediterranean island of
Cyprus, which many Greeks consider as
part of the Hellenic world, is also being
exploited by the Soviets.
Ethnos is printed on the most modern
presses in Greece. Examples of its re-
cent "news" stories are reports that the
United States is turning Cyprus into a
nuclear shelter, that the CIA is breeding
giant mosquitos to poison its enemies,
that the CIA invented AIDS to contami-
nate the Third World and that the Berlin
Wall was built to prevent infiltration of
Western agents into East Germany.
Informed sources said that in recent
months Ethnos printed 14 articles sub-
mitted to it by the Soviet Embassy.
The staff of Ethnos includes a number
of non-Greek correspondents known to
Western intelligence services for their
communist links.
It was Ethnos that announced the pub-
lication of the Greek version of New
Times, hailing it as a source of informa-
tion on "revolutionary days in the Soviet
Union on the threshold of the 21st cen-
tury."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100650001-2