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Soviet Union [USSR] Active Measures
Active measures were clandestine operations designed to further
Soviet foreign policy goals and to extend Soviet influence
throughout the world. This type of activity had long been employed
by the Soviet Union abroad, but it became more widespread and more
effective in the late 1960s. Among these covert techniques was
disinformation: leaking of false information and rumors to foreign
media or planting forgeries in an attempt to deceive the public or
the political elite in a given country or countries. The United
States was the prime target of disinformation, in particular
forgery operations, which were designed to damage foreign and
defense policies of the United States in a variety of ways.
Defectors reported that the Soviet Union and its allies circulated
forged documents--often purporting to be speeches, letters, or
policy statements by United States officials--containing false
information. The use of international
front (see Glossary)
organizations and foreign communist parties to expand the Soviet
Union's political influence and further its propaganda campaigns
was another form of active measures. The World Peace Council was
the largest and most important of Soviet front groups. Together
with the International Department of the Central Committee, the KGB
funneled money to these organizations and recruited Soviet agents
to serve on their administrative bodies.
Other active measures involved support for terrorists and
insurgents. As of 1989, there was no direct, public evidence that
Soviet citizens had planned or orchestrated terrorist acts by
groups from Western Europe or the Middle East, but there was much
indirect evidence to show that the Soviet Union did support
international terrorism. The Soviet Union maintained close
relationships with a number of governments and organizations that
were direct supporters of terrorist groups. The Soviet Union sold
large quantities of arms to Libya and Syria, for example, and also
maintained a close alliance with the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), providing it with arms, monetary assistance,
and paramilitary training. Moscow's surrogate, Cuba, played a
central role in Latin American terrorism by providing groups with
training, arms, and sanctuary, and the Soviet Union's East European
satellite states often served as middlemen or subcontractors for
channeling aid to terrorist groups. Although the KGB, with some
exceptions, avoided direct involvement with terrorist operations,
it played an important role in diverting aid to these groups and
providing the Soviet leadership with intelligence reports on their
activities.
The KGB also was heavily involved in the support of "wars of
national liberation" in the Third World. Together with satellite
intelligence services, the KGB helped to organize military training
and political indoctrination of leftist guerrillas, as well as
providing arms and advisers. The manipulation of wars of national
liberation enabled the Soviet Union to influence the political
future of the countries in question and to make their new
governments more responsive to Soviet objectives. The Soviet regime
concentrated mainly on African countries until the late 1970s but
then extended its support for "national liberation movements" to
Central America, where it has regularly employed the services of
Cuba.
The KGB relied heavily on the intelligence services of
satellite countries in carrying out both active measures and
espionage operations. The intelligence services of the German
Democratic Republic (East Germany), Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Hungary, Bulgaria, and Cuba formed important adjuncts to the KGB.
Although formally subordinated to their own governments, these
satellite intelligence services were, according to many Western
experts, heavily influenced by the KGB. A former official in the
Czechoslovak intelligence service stated that Soviet intelligence
was informed about every major aspect of Czechoslovak intelligence
activities, and Soviet advisers (called liaison officers)
participated in planning major operations and assessing the
results. As far back as the 1960s, the KGB introduced a new element
of coordination with the satellite intelligence services through
the creation of departments for disinformation in East German,
Czechoslovak, and Hungarian intelligence services and the
establishment of direct lines of communication from these
departments to the KGB.
Soviet active measures involved not only KGB and satellite
intelligence services but also several other Soviet agencies, which
all participated in a coordinated effort to further Soviet policy
objectives. In addition to the KGB, the Central Committee's
International Department took a leading role in directing and
implementing active measures.
Data as of May 1989
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