CIA document 0000042346 (PDF)

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

Some of the scientists have concluded that the object that crashed into Hill 611 was an "extraterrestrial" space vehicle constructed by highly intelligent beings. Doctor of Chemical Sciences V. Vysotskiy stated that "without doubt, this is evidence of a high technology, and it is not anything of a natural or terrestrial origin." He cited the fact that the remnants of fine mesh included bits of thin threads with a diameter of only 17 microns and that these threads, in turn, were composed of even thinner strands twisted into braids. Extremely thin gold wires were discovered intertwined in the finest threads—evidence of an intricate technology beyond the present capabilities of terrestrial science, according to Vysotskiy.

SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA of 25 July 1989 reported that a UFO sighting had been claimed by engineer Yuriy Ponomarenko and a group of workers at a collective farm in the Dnepropetrovsk region. The object was described as a disk with two beams of light emanating from its sides. The witnesses maintained that they had observed the object on the ground for about 20 minutes, and that it emitted no sound when it flew away.

The August 1989 issue of the Soviet journal NAUKA I ZHIZN included a 9-page article which, after summarizing the history of UFO sightings in general, contrasted some of the views of the "skeptics" with some of the opinions of the "enthusiasts" on the numerous reported UFO sightings in the USSR, including incidents in Serpukhov, Petrozavodsk, and Rudnya. According to the "enthusiasts," UFOs have left evidence of their visits on many occasions, including the Serpukhov incident in which, they claim, a UFO left a circular depression in the grass with a diameter of 4 meters. The skeptics maintain that most of this so-called "evidence" can be explained as having no connection with extraterrestrial intelligence. Many of the sightings could be attributed to rocket testing, for example. Academician Vladimir Vasilyevich Migulin, director of the Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation Institute in Troitsk, which has a section for the investigation of anomalous phenomena in the atmosphere, maintains that over 90 percent of UFO sightings can be nullified by such mundane explanations.

STROITELNAYA GAZETA of 16 September 1989 reported that in August a group of observers including physical scientist Elvir Kurchenko began investigating another circular depressed area in a forest near Surgut after a worker claimed that a UFO had visited the site.

SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA of 30 September 1989 noted that media all over the Soviet Union were receiving reports of UFO sightings on the ground and in the air, adding that the paper's editorial office was reviewing hundreds of reports related to UFO incidents. In response to this deluge of reports, the paper interviewed Anatoliy Listratov, chairman of the section of the All-Union Astronomical and Geodesic Society assigned to the study of anomalous phenomena, who said that although his group is "still vandering around in the darkness," some important developments in the investigations had recently occurred. He stated that "at the sites of the landings...the operating frequency of a crystal-controlled oscillator changes. Simply speaking, electronic timepieces run at rates that are either too fast or too slow."

Listratov noted that Soviet military officers and pilots had recently started providing some documentation on UFO sightings. As an example, he stated that he had documentary information regarding an encounter between Soviet aircraft and a UFO over the city of Borisov. The crews of two