The “AN” columnist watched the next series about the national security agent in the company of two security officers. True, one of them - retired colonel Andrei Vasilyevich - was already retired, and his son Sergey only recently graduated from the FSB Academy and asked not to shine his last name.After the film, a classic dispute between fathers and children arose. Only taking into account professional specificity he wore a special character. Whose intelligence and counterintelligence is better: Soviet or Russian? When national security agents were cooler - then or now?
Fanfare sound early
Sergey in this dispute referred to the latest data, which President Putin gave at the closed board of the FSB. It turns out that last year the Russian counterintelligence prevented 6 terrorist attacks, stopped the 34 cadre and the 181 agent of foreign intelligence agencies, 12 of them were taken red-handed. The FSB conducted more than 60 special operations, the organizers and perpetrators of the attacks suffered punishment. Investigated and prevented many crimes of a terrorist nature, including especially dangerous 99.
“However, in the Caucasus, especially in Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, a terrorist war continues,” Andrei Vasilyevich retorted to his son. - Priests, university rectors, judges and journalists are dying.
Sergey frowned:
“Our guys are being killed too.” Last May, a lieutenant colonel from the Vympel special group died in Dagestan. And quite recently, riot policemen sent to the Caucasus from Central Russia were blown up at the checkpoint.
- Guys are very sorry, - said Andrey Vasilyevich. - But in many ways their death is on the conscience of not only terrorists, but also their own superiors. Poorly prepared for a business trip. And is it possible to send people to the special operation who do not know the language and local customs? In Soviet times we were prepared differently.
The old commando began to tell how carefully he selected people in the "Muslim battalion" before storming the Amin Palace in Kabul. How super secret units of the KGB fighters were created for operations in Afghanistan and other “hot spots of the planet”. They served in these supermen. Now these can be seen only in the movies. And now even the FSB Academy accepts tenth-graders, people without a good knowledge of the language and life experience.
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In 1979, Alexander Poteev was trained at the famous Officer Development Courses, where he trained personnel for the KGB special forces. Poteev served in the special group “Zenith”, then in the special groups “Cascade-1” and “Cascade-2”, took part in operations in the territory of Afghanistan, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Returning from this country, he graduated from the Red Banner Institute of the KGB and served in the First Main Directorate (foreign intelligence) of the KGB of the USSR. In 1990, Poteev worked in several foreign countries (including the United States) under the guise of an employee of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In 2000, Alexander Poteev was appointed deputy head of the “C” department, who oversaw the activities of illegal Russian agents.
In 1979, Alexander Poteev was trained at the famous Officer Development Courses, where he trained personnel for the KGB special forces. Poteev served in the special group “Zenith”, then in the special groups “Cascade-1” and “Cascade-2”, took part in operations in the territory of Afghanistan, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Returning from this country, he graduated from the Red Banner Institute of the KGB and served in the First Main Directorate (foreign intelligence) of the KGB of the USSR. In 1990, Poteev worked in several foreign countries (including the United States) under the guise of an employee of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In 2000, Alexander Poteev was appointed deputy head of the “C” department, who oversaw the activities of illegal Russian agents.
Graduates of the Sorbonne and Fort Braga
Listening to Andrei Vasilyevich, I remembered the story of Major-General Drozdov Yuri Ivanovich, the head of the C Directorate. He was the creator and mentor of the most legendary KGB special forces. The structure of "Vympel" consisted of about a thousand people. Only one out of ten candidates was selected.
The Vympel fighter knew at least one foreign language, many had two higher educations. According to Drozdov, before training one fighter "Vympel" cost 100 thousand rubles per year. Preparation took up to five years. Some Vympel employees underwent (naturally, illegally) an "internship" in NATO special forces, in particular, at the praised "green berets" in the American Fort Bragg. Were among the fighters "Vympel" and such that even graduated from the famous French Sorbonne.
The Vympel fighters mastered hand-to-hand combat not on mats in a warm gym, but on pavement or frost-bound ground. They learned to overcome water obstacles in a special pool in Balashikha near Moscow, where the pumps turned on at full capacity created a rapid flow. Out on the sea. But do not sunbathe and swim, and mastered light water training at the 17 SPN brigade in Ochakovo. They were trained by firing a pistol using a special technique from Nicaraguan instructors, and were trained on surviving in the jungle in Cuba and in Angola. Soviet Special Forces comprehended mountain training in the high mountain camps of Armenia, trained in flights on SLLA (ultra-light aircraft) in the Crimea.
Vympelovtsy were prepared comprehensively. Could, for example, use parachutes-wing during their covert operations. Special cartridges were used to turn ordinary objects into a powerful means of destruction: pens, umbrellas, canes. They knew how to make explosives from household chemicals. They knew which spiders could be eaten, and which could not, with which grass a rat should be cooked so that it became fit for human consumption.
Masked "Vampelova" best able to anyone. Once, the Army General Zakharov, who was inspecting the special forces, was brought to the place where our children were conducting the exercises. He did not find them. Then, in order to demonstrate to him that disguised "pennants" see him, General Drozdov asked Zakharov to make some movements and turned on the radio more loudly. He asks the Vympel fighters: “What is the general doing now?” They answer: “He corrects his cap.” And in the region of Chernogolovka, situated near Moscow, they were literally walking along the “pennants” when they were looking for them, - so much did they merge with nature. When the guys got tired of it, they asked a conditional signal: “Can I take it?” They were answered: “It is possible”. They pursuers instantly put.
Almost nothing is known about the military operations of the Soviet supermen. Everything is kept in the strictest confidence. The press just leaked some details of the release of hostages in Lebanon.
Here 30 September 1985, the armed seizure of the staff of the Soviet embassy, moving in two cars occurred. In one were the consulate officer Arkady Katkov and the embassy doctor Nikolai Svirsky, in the other were KGB resident officers Oleg Spirin and Valery Myrikov.
The kidnappers were representatives of the Palestinian organization, Khaled Bin El-Walid. The former personal security guard of Yasser Arafat, Imad Mugniy, nicknamed Hyena, planned the operation and guided the operation. Another Arafat security guard, Hajj, also participated in the capture. Negotiations with terrorists did not give any results. A few days later they shot the wounded Arkady Katkov, riddling with machine gun fire.
To participate in the hostage rescue operation, a Vympel operational group flew to Beirut. Shortly after her arrival, under unknown circumstances, the leaders of the bandits began to die. Despite the fact that they knew how to hide, nothing saved them in Beirut. Together with the cut off head of one of the terrorists, the Hyena receives a written ultimatum that if he does not release the hostages, he can choose the next victim himself. A note demanding the release of the hostages was handed over by a man close to the Beirut market in person to Imad. This was proof that his opponent was aware of his whereabouts and how to get to him. Hyena, it became clear that the next victim will most likely be himself.
The next day, three Soviet citizens were released.
Test loot
For the special forces of Vympel, then there were no impossible tasks. And Yeltsin tried to destroy such a legendary group with only one stroke of the pen. In October 1993 of the year, he reassigned this MVD special forces. But only 50 people agreed to put on police epaulets and go to the newly created group “Vega”. Basically, ensigns-instructors. The remaining few hundred scattered where. Some were taken to the Foreign Intelligence Service, and then they formed the backbone of the top-secret "Barrier". Others went to Shoigu - rescuers. Still others remained in the FSB at the Center for Special Operations. But there were those who did not find themselves in civilian life and became ill with the notorious “Russian disease”.
It is sad to admit, but now this Soviet experience has been largely lost, and supermen have remained only in the cinema. Some of the former Special Forces could not stand the test of loot and become disgusted. For example, a traitor Poteev.
Alexander Poteev embarked on the path of betrayal as early as the middle of the 1999 year. As a result, it was from that time that he went to 12 once for short trips to the USA, Mexico, Chile and other Western countries, visited the CIS countries seven times and used all these trips to meet with CIA agents and transfer various information to them. In 2000, he, as an employee of the 4 Department of Management "C", got access to undercover affairs and even became the curator of the intelligence officer with Pavel Kapustin's 30-year experience (Christopher Roger Mezetz), who later became friends with, but also gave to Americans as illegal (By the way, Kapustin was secretly taken out of Cyprus after the local court released him on bail before considering the issue of the extradition of an illegal immigrant to the US.)
In addition to 11, our well-known illegal immigrants on the conscience of a defector, two more agents disclosed by the US special services. One intelligence officer named Poteev was called “Agent I” (he returned to Russia safely from Chile), and the other - “Agent L” (he worked in the US undercover in one of the large Russian companies, and the Russian special services failed to arrest him allow). They say that the Sweetener gave out the Anshlan spouses, who are now being tried in Germany.