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Dossier No. 03 · Ego — wounded pride

Farewell

The KGB officer who saved the West

classified
Protagonist
Vladimir Vetrov
Period
1981-1982
Nature
Defection
Main location
Moscow, USSR · Russia
MICE motive
Ego — wounded pride

Lieutenant-Colonel Vetrov handed the French DST close to 3,000 documents exposing the KGB's “Line X”, the Soviet theft of Western technology. The largest espionage affair ever known in France, it led to the expulsion of forty-seven Soviet “diplomats” in 1983.

On the ground

  • Moscow
  • Paris (DST)
  • Washington

Route: Moscow → Paris · Paris → Washington

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