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| 14.12.200911:37 (GMT) | General Oleg Kalugin was the head of the Soviet KGB's foreign counterintelligence branch when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979. Online magazine Foreign Policy publishes his article devoted to some developments of preparation for the Soviet invasion connected with the KGB thirty years ago this month. Kalugin tells the inside story of how the decision was made.
He says Moscow had not been overjoyed by news of the coup when late in 1978, pro-Communist coup headed by Noor Mohammad Taraki had overthrown the government of Mohammad Daoud, killing him and his family as Daoud was a stable ally and the Kremlin had relative peace along its southern border. Reports soon began to filter back to KGB headquarters in Moscow of growing Islamic opposition in Afghanistan to the new Taraki regime. Kalugin and his KGB colleague Vladimir Kryuchkov were sent to Kabul in autumn 1978 on a fact-finding mission. Their objectives included signing a cooperation agreement between the Soviet and Afghan intelligence services. KGB officers on the ground warned that if Moscow did not intervene more aggressively, Amin would surely be overthrown and an Islamic government installed. Kalugin heard at a meeting of KGB intelligence and Soviet military intelligence in which the GRU chief, General Ivashutin, argued for an invasion. Andropov remained against the introduction of troops, however, under pressure from Defense Minister Dimitri Ustinov did he reluctantly come around to the view that the Soviet military would have to invade.
The KGB officials began filtering out bad news, telling then-general secretary of the Communist party Leonid Brezhnev and the Politburo what they wanted to hear, Kalugin marks. All intelligence information, from the GRU, the KGB, and the Foreign Ministry, had to be funneled through KGB intelligence before being presented to the Politburo in Moscow, he marks.
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