Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency transcript, dated 14 April 1991, carries the second part of a Moscow television interview with Soviet Air Defense Forces (PVO) commander in chief Tretyak by interviewer Vovnenko. Tretyak talks about reorganizing reconnaissance after the loss of forward coverage in Eastern Europe, lessons from the Persian Gulf war, and budget cuts that he says will hurt combat readiness. A passage summarized in the text says the Air Defense Forces had recorded no UFOs, and Tretyak says he does not yet believe in them.
“The Advance”1 page
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SERIAL=LD1404191891 UDN=X（50130） CLASS=UNCLAS 3P/PMU STV/SU MIS UNCLAS 3P/PMU STV/SU MIS SERIAL: LD1404191891 PASS: ATTN TV CENTER COUNTRY: USSR SUBJ: TAKE 2 OF 2 -- AIR DEFENSE FORCES CHIEF INTERVIEWED REF: LD1404191791 MOSCOW CTV1 RUSSIAN 140945//HAVE PULLED OUT? TEXT: ((TEXT)) ((TRETYAK)) HUNGARY, POLAND, AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA. OF COURSE, WE HAD OUR RECONNAISSANCE RANGE PERIMETER 600-700 KM FURTHER FORWARD. NOW IT RUNS ALONG THE USSR STATE BORDER. AND NATURALLY THE WHOLE SYSTEM HAS TO BE REVIEWED. AND THAT IS WHAT WE ARE DOING SO WE CAN SEE AHEAD. BUT NOW OUR FRIENDS ARE PUTTING FORWARD PROPOSALS TO CONCLUDE BILATERAL AGREEMENTS. NOT MULTILATERAL LIKE WE HAD, BUT EACH COUNTRY WITH OUR COUNTRY, SO THAT WE MUTUALLY INFORM EACH OTHER. WE HAVE NOTHING AGAINST THIS OPTION, AND FOR EXAMPLE, THE ROMANIAN COMRADES HAVE ARRANGED A MEETING WITH US IN MAY, WHERE WE ARE GOING TO SIGN AN AGREEMENT ON JOINT INFORMATION ON THE AIR SITUATION AHEAD. WE WILL BE PROVIDING INFORMATION TO THEM FROM OVER THE SEA AND THE FLANKS. OBVIOUSLY THINGS ARE MORE COMPLICATED FOR US NOW. BUT, WE CAN REORGANIZE THE SYSTEM AND THAT IS WHAT WE ARE DOING. ((VOVNENKO)) COULD YOU PLEASE TELL US WHETHER THE PEOPLE WHO WORK HERE HAVE HAD THE EXPERIENCE OF THE LATEST IN THE PERSIAN GULF BROUGHT PROPERLY TO THEIR NOTICE? IS IT BEING STUDIED? AND HOW WELL ARE YOU, AS THE PVO COMMANDER IN CHIEF, INFORMED ABOUT WHAT TOOK PLACE? ((TRETYAK)) AS THE PVO WE HAVE TO BE READY TO FIGHT AGAINST AIR SPACE ATTACKS AT ANY TIME OF DAY OR NIGHT. SURPRISE PLAYS A PART HERE AND RAISED COMBAT READINESS, OR OTHER STATES OF READINESS, IS IMPORTANT SO THAT WE CAN AT ANY MOMENT GO UP AGAINST THE ENEMY. THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. WELL, AS FAR AS AIR FORCES WERE CONCERNED, THEY HAD THE ((MIG)) 21'S THERE, THE 23'S, AND 25'S, AND EVEN THE 29'S. BUT, HUSAYN SENT MOST OF THEM TO IRAN. AND ACCORDING TO THE DATA WHICH WE HAVE, DEPENDING ON THEIR ACCURACY, ONLY SEVERAL PLANES WERE SHOT DOWN BY THE AIR FORCES. ((VOVNENKO)) THE REST (?WENT THROUGH) SPACE SYSTEMS? ((TRETYAK)) SPACE SYSTEMS HAD ONLY ONE ROLE THERE. FIRST, THEY GATHERED INTELLIGENCE AND MONITORED SURFACE-TO-SURFACE OPERATIONAL TACTICAL MISSILES, JUST AS OVER-THE-HORIZON STATIONS DID, AND ORIENTED THEIR PATRIOT ANTIAIRCRAFT MISSILE SYSTEMS FOR FIRING. AND IF ONE WERE TO SAY THAT THE PATRIOT IS HIGHLY EFFICIENT, I WOULD NOT AGREE. ALTHOUGH AT ONE TIME THE AMERICANS STATED THE PATRIOT WAS NOT MEANT TO BE AN ANTI-MISSILE DEFENSE WEAPON, THEY NOW HAVE SHOWN THE WHOLE WORLD THAT THEY DEVELOPED IT NOT ONLY AS AN ANTIAIRCRAFT SYSTEM, BUT AN ANTI-MISSILE SYSTEM AS WELL. THEIR RECONNAISSANCE WAS VERY WELL DEPLOYED. THERE WERE THE AWACS PLANES, THERE WERE THE F-111E ELECTRONIC COUNTERMEASURES PLANES, THE TR-1 RECONNAISSANCE PLANES, THE RS-135 STRATEGIC UNCLAS 3P/PMU STV/SU MIS
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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. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.