Soviet Security Services, Who Saved USA President
Pavel Filippov
In Russian • на русском
Nearly thirty years have passed since then, but still today few people know that the visit by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan to Moscow in 1988 could have had a tragic outcome for him.
Assassination attempts take place in the world occasionally. Of course, presidents are guarded by highly skilled professionals. Yet, alas, this is no guarantee against such attempts. USSR is among the few countries from which distinguished guests have always returned home safe and sound.
However, in 1988 President Reagan could have been an unfortunate exception to this, had it not been for the skills of the Soviet security services.
The visit took place shortly before presidential elections in the United States. People had already begun to forget about the Cold War. Relations between Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev were beginning to improve, and Reagan had ceased to describe the USSR as the "Evil Empire."
H owever, forces still existed that wanted to reverse the positive tendencies in Soviet-U.S. relations.
KGB Colonel Valery Velichko (now the President of the Club of State Security Veterans)
KGB Colonel Valery Velichko (now the President of the Club of State Security Veterans) took a part in those events.
He reminisces that they had little information about the planned assassination attempt. They only knew that the assassin was a journalist from a foreign country and that he had formerly been a member of a terrorist organization.
They also knew that he was about 6'2" and had acne. The visit attracted a large number of journalists.
Initially, credentials were planned for about 3,500 Soviet and foreign correspondents in Moscow.
However, the actual number of journalists accredited during the three days of the visit reached 7,000. Of course, the Presidents could have been sealed off and hidden behind bullet-proof glass, but that would have meant almost no information for the public. No one wanted to do that.
Instead, it was decided to place journalists on mobile podiums mounted on trucks, each one able to hold 150 to 180 journalists. The schedule for the movement of these platforms was drawn up in accordance with the protocol of airport meeting. Soviet secret services could control every person on the podiums.
According to Velichko, security services had been thoroughly checking up on all journalists since the moment they had received the information about the planned assassination attempt. Residents in other countries did the same. The situation was complicated by the fact that 350 foreign journalists were to arrive at Moscow's Vnukovo airport only an hour before the arrival of the U.S. President's plane. During those 60 minutes security services had to check the identity cards of every journalist and conduct technical control measures.
As the height of the wanted terrorist was known to be 6'2", security services selected a border guard of the same height for checking journalists' ID cards at the plane's boarding ramp. Video and other equipment of the journalists was thoroughly checked. Nothing suspicious was found.
Finally, Ronald Reagan arrived in Moscow.
The visit proceeded without incident. Preparations were underway for the U.S. President's departure.
The terrorist was identified a mere 15 minutes before the official send-off ceremony at Vnukovo airport on June 2.
The sky was cloudy, and it began to drizzle. Security agents were radioed that the presidential motorcade had already left the Kremlin and was heading for the airport. The Honor Guard had already taken their places, and U.S. Secret Service agents were bouncing on the plane's ladder to check its reliability with their weight.
The visit took place shortly before presidential elections in the United States. People had already begun to forget about the Cold War. Relations between Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev were beginning to improve, and Reagan had
Residents in other countries did the same. The situation was complicated by the fact that 350 foreign journalists were to arrive at Moscow's Vnukovo airport only an hour before the arrival of the U.S. President's plane. During those 60 minutes security services had to check the identity cards of every journalist and conduct technical control measures.
As the height of the wanted terrorist was known to be 6'2", security services selected a border guard of the same height for checking journalists' ID cards at the plane's boarding ramp. Video and other equipment of the journalists was thoroughly checked. Nothing suspicious was found.
Finally, Ronald Reagan arrived in Moscow. The visit proceeded without incident. Preparations were underway for the U.S. President's departure.
The terrorist was identified a mere 15 minutes before the official send-off ceremony at Vnukovo airport on June 2.
The sky was cloudy, and it began to drizzle. Security agents were radioed that the presidential motorcade had already left the Kremlin and was heading for the airport. The Honor Guard had already taken their places, and U.S. Secret Service agents were bouncing on the plane's ladder to check its reliability with their weight.
The tension was growing. The thought flashed through Velichko's mind that everything would be over in 40 to 50 minutes, but lie dismissed it: "I should not think about it before the plane takes off."
At that very moment Velichko was called to the telephone. He was given exact information about the terrorist: his name, the year of his birth and the name of the newspaper for which he worked. In the 1960s, he had been a member of the left-wing extremist organization, Red Brigades. On that day he was carrying a special explosive that could not be detected by a metal detector. An explosion in close proximity to Reagan could produce, even if nothing worse, a panic and provoke his bodyguards to open fire. In any case, that would spoil the impression of the summit and become headline news that would damage the prestige of security services.
Urgent measures were taken to find the terrorist. Fifteen minutes later he was found —on a podium right at the plane's boarding ramp, a couple of meters from where Reagan was to pass. The man was fiddling with his camera and looking around. Perhaps he felt that he was being watched. He was visibly nervous.
In spite of the fact that his weapon had not been detected at customs and was reliably hidden on himself, he could not calm down, in addition, he had a reserve plan in ease the assassination attempt failed.
"What could I do?" Velichko reminisces. "We had no time to remove him from the podium. Besides this, there were television camcus all around. We also had no time to summin our agents from other locations. I asked Major-General Karpukhin, who was standing by my side, for four agents from the antiteriorist unit 'A'. I briefly instructed them what they should do."
It was decided that the agents would seize the terrorist's arms and feet and take him down to the ground where two more agents were already standing. Everything was to be done quickly and without anyone noticing it (the ceremony was telecast live to the whole world).
Several minutes later the number of reporters on the podium increased by four. The man began to suspect something and looked back. He saw two people behind the podium who were apparently watching him The man went pale.
Now Colonel Velichko deliberately tried to meet the man's eyes so that he would realize that his plan was futile.
But what if the man was a fanatic who had nothing to lose?
What if the explosive was fastened on his body and he did not need to use his hands or feel to set it off.?
The sirens of the presidential motorcade could already be heard in the distance Velichko saw the terrorist's frightened eyes. The man apparently realized everything. His camera was lying on the floor, and hie was holding onto the podium's handrail.
President Reagan was heading toward the plane's boarding ramp.
Suddenly he stopped, came up to the podium, and began to pose before the cameras. There were a mere two meters between him and the terrorist. At that very moment the agents squeezed the man so that he could hardly breathe. The orchestra played a march. The plane's engines were started. Everything was over.
Colonel Velichko's eyes followed the podium, which was now being taken away from the airfield. He saw the terrorist surrounded by agents, and wondered what the man was now thinking.
He had never taken a single picture.
Passport to the New World. 09.10.1995.
мая, 
