___
The spetsnaz agent who is recruited to provide support for the
operations of fighting groups in the way I have described, by acquiring a
house andor transport feels he is quite safe. The local police would have
tremendous difficulty trying to run him to earth. Even if he were to be
found and arrested it would be practically impossible to prove his guilt.
But what the agent does not know is that danger threatens him from spetsnaz
itself. Officers in the GRU who are discontented with the Communist regime
may, either as a mark of protest or for other reasons, defect to the West.
When they do, they are free to identify agents, including spetsnaz agents.
Equally, once he has carried out his act of terrorism, the spetsnaz commando
will destroy all traces of its work and any witnesses, including the agent
who protected or helped the group in the first place. A man who is recruited
as an agent to back up a commando group very rarely realises what will
happen to him afterwards.
Thus if it is relatively easy to recruit a man to act as a `sleeper',
what about recruiting a foreigner to act as a real terrorist, prepared to
commit murder, use explosives and fire buildings? Surely that is much more
difficult?
The answer is that, surprisingly, it is not. A spetsnaz officer out to
recruit agents for direct terrorist action has a wonderful base for his work
in the West. There are a tremendous number of people who are discontented
and ready to protest against absolutely anything. And while millions protest
peacefully, some individuals will resort to any means to make their protest.
The spetsnaz officer has only to find the malcontent who is ready to go to
extremes.
A man who protests against the presence of American troops in Europe
and sprays slogans on walls is an interesting subject. If he not only paints
slogans but is also prepared to fire at an American general, should he be
given the sub-machine gun or an RPG-7 grenade-launcher to do the job, he is
an exceptionally interesting person. His goals tally perfectly with those of
the senior officers of the GRU.
In France protesters fired an RPG-7 grenade-launcher at the reactor of
a nuclear power station. Where they got the Soviet-made weapon I do not
know. Perhaps it was just lying there at the roadside. But if it was a
spetsnaz officer who had the good fortune to meet those people and provide
them with their hardware, he would without further ado have been given a Red
Banner medal and promotion. The senior officers of the GRU have a particular
dislike of Western nuclear power stations, which reduce the West's
dependence on imported oil (including Soviet oil) and make it stronger and
more independent. They are one of spetsnaz's most important targets.
On another occasion a group of animal rights activists in the UK
injected bars of chocolate with poison. If spetsnaz were able to contact
that group, and there is every chance it might, it would be extremely keen
(without, of course, mentioning its name) to suggest to them a number of
even more effective ways of protesting. Activists, radicals, peace
campaigners, green party members: as far as the leaders of the GRU are
concerned, these are like ripe water-melons, green on the outside, but red
on the inside -- and mouth-watering.
So there is a good base for recruiting. There are enough discontented
people in the West who are ready not only to kill others but also to
sacrifice their own lives for the sake of their own particular ideals which
spetsnaz may exploit. The spetsnaz officer has only to find and take
advantage of the malcontent who is ready to go to extremes.
___
The spetsnaz network of agents has much in common with international
terrorism, a common centre, for example -- yet they are different things and
must not be confused. It would be foolhardy to claim that international
terrorism came into being on orders from Moscow. But to claim that, without
Moscow's support, international terrorism would never have assumed the scale
it has would not be rash. Terrorism has been born in a variety of
situations, in various circumstances and in different kinds of soil. Local
nationalism has always been a potent source, and the Soviet Union supports
it in any form, just as it offers concrete support to extremist groups
operating within nationalist movements. Exceptions are made, of course, of
the nationalist groups within the Soviet Union and the countries under its
influence.
If groups of extremists emerge in areas where there is no sure Soviet
influence, you may be sure that the Soviet Union will very shortly be their
best friend. In the GRU alone there are two independent and very powerful
bodies dealing with questions relating to extremists and terrorists. First,
there is the 3rd Direction of the GRU which studies terrorist organisations
and ways of penetrating them. Then there is the 5th Directorate which is in
charge of all intelligence-gathering at lower levels, including that of
spetsnaz.
The GRU's tactics toward terrorists are simple: never give them any
orders, never tell them what to do. They are destroying Western
civilisation: they know how to do it, the argument goes, so let them get on
with it unfettered by petty supervision. Among them there are idealists
ready to die for their own ideas. So let them die for them. The most
important thing is to preserve their illusion that they are completely free
and independent.
Moscow is an important centre of international terrorism, not because
it is from Moscow that instructions are issued, but because selected
terrorist groups or organisations which ask for help may be given it if
little risk is attached to doing so. Moscow's deep involvement with
terrorism is a serious political affair. One `resistance movement' has to
have more financial help, another less. One `Red Army' must have modern
weapons and an unlimited supply of ammunition, another one will do better
with old weapons and a limited supply of ammunition. One movement is to be
recognised, while another will be condemned in words but supported in
practice. `Independent' terrorists give little thought to where the money
comes from with which they travel the countries of the world, or who
provides the Kalashnikov submachine-guns and the cartridges to go with them,
or who supplies the instructors who teach them and train them.
But just look at the `independent' Palestinians: they virtually throw
their ammunition away. And if one watches a film about the fighting in
Afghanistan and then one from the streets of Beirut the difference is very
striking. The Afghan resistance fighters count every round, whereas the
groups fighting each other in the streets of Beirut don't even bother to aim
when they fire; they simply fire into the air in long bursts, although it
means they are wasting someone else's money. Whose money is it?
When I was beginning my military service I was taught to count every
round. Cartridges are metal and a lot of hard work. It is more difficult and
more expensive
to make a cartridge than to make a fountain pen. And another
reason for being careful with ammunition is so that you are never without it
at a critical moment. Supplying an army with ammunition is a complex
logistical problem. If the transport carrying ammunition arrives even a few
minutes after you have spent all your ammunition without thinking, then you
are dead. But there are no such problems in Beirut. Nobody tells the
conflicting groups what the ammunition costs. Nobody tells them the cost of
the lives they cut off every day. Nobody mentions the danger that the
regular supply of ammunition may be late. The suppliers are certain that it
will not be late.
___
The Soviet Union condemns the civil war in the Lebanon. But there is no
need for it to condemn the war. All it has to do is hold back the next
transport of ammunition, and war will cease.
Apart from military and financial support, the Soviet Union also
provides the terrorists aid in the form of training. Training centres have
been set up in the Soviet Union for training terrorists from a number of
different countries. Similar centres have been set up in the countries of
Eastern Europe, in Cuba and elsewhere. I know the centre in Odessa very
well. Officially it belongs to the 10th Chief Directorate of the General
Staff which deals with the export of weapons, sends Soviet military advisers
to foreign countries and trains foreigners to be fighters and terrorists. In
the early 1960s this centre was a branch of the higher infantry officers
school. An intelligence faculty was formed in it for Soviet students, many
of whom ended up in the GRU and spetsnaz, while the remainder of the huge
area, classrooms and living quarters, was given over entirely to the centre
for training foreign fighters. When I was in Odessa most of the people under
training were intended for work in black Africa. Not all of them came from
Africa, quite a lot of them were from Cuba, but that was where the majority
were destined. The difference between the training and the living conditions
of the Soviet and the foreign students was tremendous.
The foreigners were better fed and wore Soviet officers' field
uniforms, though without any badges of rank. They had practically no
theoretical tuition at all. But their practical training was very
concentrated, even by Soviet standards. For them there was no shortage of
ammunition. Shooting went on in their camp day and night.
The foreigners were kept in strict isolation. The only outsiders who
could see them were the Soviet students and then only through the barbed
wire. The total isolation had a bad effect on some of the foreign students.
But since they could not break out of it, the Cuban minister of defence
stepped in and ordered some girls to be sent from Cuba who were trained as
nurses for partisan units at the Odessa centre. It was interesting to note
that the soldiers were under training for one year and the officers for two
years, but the nurses' training lasted ten years or more. At the end of
their training the nurses were sent back to Cuba and some younger ones were
sent to replace them. There were no more psychological problems at the
training centre.
___
Foreigners belonging to `liberation movements' who turn up in the
Soviet Union are not generally recruited by the Soviet intelligence
services. Experience has shown that the terrorist who considers himself
independent and who kills people because of his own beliefs is more
effective than the one who fights on the orders of other people. For his own
ideas the terrorist will take risks and sacrifice his life, but he is
scarcely likely to do so merely on instructions from foreigners. So why
recruit him?
But there are important exceptions. Every terrorist is studied
carefully during his training, and among them will be noted the potential
leaders and the born rebels who will not submit to any authority. Of equal
importance are the students' weaknesses and ambitions, and their
relationships with one another. Some time, many years ahead, one of them may
become an important leader, but not one approved by Moscow, so it is vital
to know in advance who his likely friends and enemies will be.
As the students are themselves studied during training, some emerge as
exceptions among the crowd and as likely material for recruitment.
Recruitment at the training centres is carried on simultaneously by two
different GRU organisations. The 3rd Direction recruits informers, who will
subsequently remain inside the `national liberation movements' and will pass
on to the heads of the GRU the internal secrets of the movements. The 5th
Directorate of the GRU recruits some of the students to be part of the
spetsnaz network of agents. This is a fairly complicated process. Formally
the candidate remains in his `liberation movement' and works there. In fact
he starts to operate on instructions from the GRU. It is a very delicate
situation and all possible steps are taken to protect the reputation of the
USSR in case of failure. With this aim in view the carefully selected
candidate, unaware of his position, is transferred to training in one of the
countries under Soviet influence. Recruitment then takes place, but not by
Soviet Intelligence, rather by the Intelligence service of one of the Soviet
satellite countries.
The recruitment of a full-blown terrorist is a very different matter
from the recruitment of an informer-agent. The terrorist has to go through
very tough training which becomes a daily, and a nightly nightmare. He
dreams of the training coming to an end: he yearns for the real thing. The
instructors talk to him and ask him what he would like, as a terrorist, to
do. The terrorist tells them. The instructors then `think about it' and a
few days later tell him it is not possible. The torture of the training
continues. Again the question of what he wants to do is raised, and again he
is turned down. Various reasons are given for refusing him: we value your
life too highly to send you on such a risky mission; such an act might have
unwanted repercussions on your family, your comrades, and so on. Thus the
range of choice is gradually narrowed down until the terrorist suggests
exactly what the heads of Soviet Military intelligence want. They `think
about it' for a few days and finally give their agreement in such a way that
it does not appear to be something wanted by the GRU but rather a compromise
or a concession to the terrorist: if he really thinks it necessary to do it,
no obstacles will be put in his way.
I have of course simplified a process which is in practice a very
complicated affair.
The reward for the GRU is that a terrorist doing work for spetsnaz does
not, in the great majority of cases, suspect he is being used. He is utterly
convinced that he is acting independently, of his own will and by his own
choice. The GRU does not leave its signature or his fingerprints around.
Even in cases where it is not a question of individual terrorists but
of experienced leaders of terrorist organisations,
the GRU takes
extraordinary steps to ensure that not only all outsiders but even the
terrorist leader himself should not realise the extent of his subordination
to spetsnaz and consequently to the GRU. The leader of the terrorists has a
vast field of action and a wide choice. But there are operations and acts of
terrorism on which spetsnaz will spend any amount of money, will provide any
kind of weapon, will help in obtaining passports and will organise hiding
places. But there are also terrorist acts for which spetsnaz has no money,
no weapons, no reliable people and no hiding places. The leader of the
terrorists is at complete liberty to choose the mission he wants, but
without weapons, money and other forms of support his freedom to choose is
suddenly severely curtailed.
--------
Chapter 9. Weapons and Equipment
The standard issue of weapons to a spetsnaz is a sub-machine gun, 400
rounds of ammunition, a knife, and six hand grenades or a light
single-action grenade-launcher. During a drop by parachute the sub-machine
gun is carried in such a way as not to interfere with the main (or the
reserve) parachute opening correctly and promptly, and not to injure the
parachute on landing. But the large number of fastenings make it impossible
for the parachutist to use the gun immediately after landing. So he should
not be left defenceless at that moment, the parachutist also carries a P-6
silent pistol. After my escape to the West I described this pistol to
Western experts and was met with a certain scepticism. Today a great deal
that I told the experts has been confirmed, and examples of the silent
pistol have been found in Afghanistan. (Jane's Defence Weekly has published
some excellent photographs and a description of this unusual weapon.) For
noiseless shooting over big distances PBS silencers are used and some
soldiers carry them on their submachine guns.
Officers, radio-operators and cypher clerks have a smaller set of
weapons: a short-barrelled sub-machine gun (AKR) of 160 rounds, a pistol and
a knife.
Apart from personal weapons a spetsnaz group carries collective weapons
in the form of RPG-16D grenade-launchers, Strela-2 ground-to-air missiles,
mines for various purposes, plastic explosive, snipers' rifles and other
weapons. The unit learns how to handle group weapons but does not keep them
Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces Page 13