Documents / FOIA release
This Foreign Broadcast Information Service press note from January 1991, FB PN 91-003, reports on an interview that Soviet Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Tretyak gave to Literaturnaya Gazeta on 9 November. Tretyak confirmed that interceptor pilots had encountered and photographed UFOs, including two pulsating lights seen on 2 March 1990 northeast of Moscow near Pereslavl-Zalesskiy and Zagorsk. He said their nature remains unknown and warned against hoaxes, citing a false Kuybyshev radar station story.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
UNCLAS /LD PMU SERIAL=WA0501074091 *** BEGIN MESSAGE 14 *** CLASS=UNCLAS /LD PMU UDN=W（3883） UNCLAS /LD PXU SERIAL: WA0501074091 PASS: ATTN BBC USSR SUBJ: TAKE 1 OF 2--FOREIGN PRESS NOTE--FB PN 91-003--USSR SOURCE: FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE PROD GROUP TEXT: USSR: UFO SIGHTINGS NO. 3 -- DEPUTY MINISTER OF DEFENSE INTERVIEW LEADING SOVIET NEWSPAPERS HAVE INCREASED THEIR REPORTING ON UFO SIGHTINGS IN RECENT MONTHS. ONE PARTICULAR HIGHLIGHT WAS A LENGTHY INTERVIEW WITH SOVIET DEPUTY MINISTER OF DEFENSE IVAN TRETYAK IN THE 9 NOVEMBER LITERATURNAYA GAZETA, A LARGE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER WITH NATIONAL CIRCULATION. TRETYAK, WHO ALSO HOLDS THE POSITIONS OF COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE AIR DEFENSE FORCES AND GENERAL OF THE ARMY, CONFIRMED THAT FIGHTER-INTERCEPTORS HAD ENCOUNTERED UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS IN SOVIET AIR SPACE. HE SAID THAT ONE 'UNIDENTIFIED FLYING MACHINE' HAD BEEN PHOTOGRAPHED BY INTERCEPTOR PILOTS AND THAT OPTICAL AND THERMAL SIGNALS FROM IT HAD BEEN DETECTED ON THE PILOTS' TARGET SCREENS, ALTHOUGH SOME 'STEALTH- LIKE'' CAPACITY PREVENTED THE RECORDING OF RADAR SIGNALS. LITERATURNAYA GAZETA COLUMNIST O. MOROZ ASKED TRETYAK IF THE AIR DEFENSE FORCES REGARD THE FLIGHT OF UFOS IN SOVIET AIR SPACE AS A 'VIOLATION OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE USSR.' TRETYAK REPLIED THAT IT IS PREMATURE TO SEE THE UFOS AS A THREAT TO SOVIET SECURITY OR SOVEREIGNTY BECAUSE ALTHOUGH PILOT REPORTS INDICATED THE UFOS APPEARED TO BE OF ARTIFICIAL ORIGIN, THEIR REAL NATURE HAS NOT YET BEEN DETERMINED. OBSERVING THAT MOST PREVIOUS UFO SIGHTINGS HAD BEEN EXPLAINED AS NATURAL PHENOMENA OR AS A MISINTERPRETATION OF OPTICAL PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH ROCKET LAUNCHES OR THE ARTIFICIAL DEERIS THAT IS CONGESTING SPACE NEAR EARTH, TRETYAK ADDED: 'MANY OF THE PHENOMENA TAKEN FOR UFOS ARE CAUSED BY THE PENETRATION OF COSMIC RAYS THROUGH OZONE HOLES WHICH ARE FORMED DURING ROCKET LAUNCHES.' HE REVEALED THAT THE MILITARY KNEW SOME OF THE FAMOUS UFO SIGHTINGS IN THE LATE 1970S COULD HAVE BEEN EXPLAINED BY MAKING THIS EFFECT PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE BUT THAT 'FOR SECURITY REASONS, NOTHING WAS WRITTEN ABOUT THIS AT THAT TIME.' GENERAL TRETYAK REPLIED NEGATIVELY WHEN ASKED WHETHER THE AIR DEFENSE FORCES HAD DETECTED ANY OF THE UFOS CITED IN FIVE RECENT CASES OF MASS OBSERVATION. AS AN EXAMPLE OF A CASE OF ''MASS'' OBSERVATION OF A UFO -- IN THIS CASE BY THE AIR DEFENSE FORCES - TRETYAK CITED AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING VEHICLE APPARAT THAT WAS REPORTED BY HIS CHIEF OF STAFF, COLONEL GENERAL MALTSEV, IN MARCH 1990 (SEE FOREIGN PRESS NOTE FB PN 90-123, 22 MAY 90, ''USSR: UFO SIGHTINGS NO. 2 -- GENERAL MALTSEV COMMENTS''). TRETYAK STATED THAT ONE PARTICULAR UFO HAD BEEN PHOTOGRAPHED, AND OPTICAL AND THERMAL SIGNALS FROM IT HAD SHOWN UP ON THE TARGET SCREENS OF THE INTERCEPTORS. IN THE WORDS OF TRETYAK: ''FOR QUITE A LONG TIME, FROM 2000 TO 2330, IN THE REGION NORTHEAST OF MOSCOW (PERESLAVLZALESSKIY, ZAGORSK, FRYAZINO, KIRZACH), TWO PULSATING Approved for Release 2/2010
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. 4 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.