Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency release is an FBIS cable dated 12 to 13 April 1991. It carries a TASS English report by correspondent Anatoliy Kakovkin about an explosion just outside Sasovo, Ryazan region, at 01:30 that morning. The blast came after a strange roar, broke most windows and left a crater 28 meters wide and 3.5 meters deep. Emergency experts found no radiation or chemical changes, and the military reported no UFOs. The mayor suggested that stored saltpeter might have exploded.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
## UNCLASSIFIED INQUIRE=DOC14D ITEM NO=00234782 ENVELOPE CDSN = LGX441 MCN = 91103/03011 TOR = 911030131 RTTUZYUW RUEKJCS2712 1030132-UUUU--RUEALGX. ZNR UUUUU HEADER R 130132Z APR 91 FM JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC INFO RUEALGX/SAFE R 121421Z APR 91 FM FBIS LONDON UK TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA RUDPMAX/FAISA FT BRAGG NC RUEBFGA/VOA WASH DC RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS RESTON VA RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHINGTON DC//INR/SEE/SI// RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC RUEOACC/CDR PSYOPGP FT BRAGG NC//ASOF-POG-SB// RUETIAV/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE RUMJBP/FBIS OKINAWA JA ACCT FBLD-EWDK BT CONTROLS UNCLAS 3S/PMU/SU UNCLAS 3S/PMU/SU SERIAL: LD1204142191 BODY COUNTRY: USSR SUBJ: 'STRANGE ROAR' PRECEDES 'MYSTERIOUS BLAST' IN SASOVO SOURCE: MOSCOW TASS IN ENGLISH 1303 GMT 12 APR 91 TEXT: //((BY TASS CORRESPONDENT ANATOLIY KAKOVKIN)) ((TEXT)) SASOVO, RYAZAN REGION IN CENTRAL RUSSIA APRIL 12 TASS -- A SHATTERING EXPLOSION SHOOK THIS SMALL TOWN IN THE HEART OF RUSSIA SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT TODAY, KNOCKING OUT MOST WINDOWS AND LEAVING SOME LOCALS SLIGHTLY INJURED BY SPLINTERED GLASS. ACCORDING TO EARLY REPORTS, NO-ONE WAS SERIOUSLY HURT BY THE MYSTERIOUS BLAST, WHICH TOOK PLACE JUST OUTSIDE SASOVO IN THE RYAZAN REGION AT 01:30. THOSE LIVING IN HIGH-RISES FELT THE BUILDINGS ROCK HEAVILY AS IF HIT BY AN EARTHQUAKE, BUT NO DAMAGE TYPICAL OF EARTH TREMORS WAS REGISTERED. THE EXPLOSION, PRECEDED BY A STRANGE ROAR, LEFT A HUGE CRATER IN A FIELD 1.5 KILOMETERS FROM THE TOWN. THE CRATER IS 3.5 METERS DEEP AND 28 METERS IN DIAMETER. UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release Date SEP 1937
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.