Vetrov, Vladimir Ippolitovich

Vetrov first visited France in 1965 to work on the “T Line” (scientific and technical intelligence) under “cover” as an engineer of the Soviet trade mission. He made contact with Jacques Prevost, a responsible employee of the Thomson CSF company manufacturing electronic equipment, including military ones, and asked him to provide a small service - to tell about new technical developments for possible purchases.

However, Prevost collaborated with the French counterintelligence DST , and Vetrov himself became the object of recruitment study. Then a suitable case presented itself when, pretty drunk, Vetrov crashed a company car. Wanting to avoid unpleasant proceedings at the embassy, ​​he appeared to his friend and asked for help with the repair of the car. A French friend did not refuse, but immediately notified counterintelligence that Vetrov now has something to hide from his own. Counterintelligence did not manage to use the situation for their own purposes - Vetrov came to an end on a business trip.

In 1974, Vetrov received a position in the Soviet trade mission in Montreal , but a year later he was recalled to the USSR with reprimand on the party line.

He was removed from operational work, but found himself in a position with access to important sensitive information - in the T department of the KGB State University, which was engaged in the analysis of scientific and technical information coming from abroad.

In the spring of 1981, he remembered an old French friend. A letter with a proposal to transmit secret information delivered to Jacques Prevost from Moscow by the Frenchman Alexander de Paul, whom Vetrov met at the Moscow Expocenter , was transferred to the DST.

Between 1981 and 1982, Vetrov, to whom DST was nicknamed “Farewell,” handed over to DST nearly 4,000 secret documents, including a complete official list of 250 Line X officers, disguised as diplomats around the world. Major Ferrand from French intelligence was entrusted with communicating with Vetrov; meetings usually took place at the Cheryomushkinsky market .

Among the information that Vetrov transmitted to the West was a complete organization of Soviet efforts in the field of scientific and technical intelligence. Vetrov reported on the tasks, achievements and unfulfilled goals of this program. Vetrov also revealed the names of 70 KGB sources in 15 western countries and 450 Soviet intelligence officers who collected scientific and technical information. The information that he transmitted led to the expulsion of almost 150 Soviet intelligence agents from different countries of the West. Only the French sent 47 Soviet scouts.

In February 1982, when Vetrov drank champagne with his mistress in his car, a KGB officer approached the car and knocked on the window. Vetrov jumped out of the car and stabbed him with the knife, from which the latter died. On November 3, 1982, the Moscow Military District tribunal found Vetrov guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony with the loss of his military rank and awards.

In August 1984, Vetrov, sent to serve his sentence near Irkutsk, was transferred to Lefortovo prison in Moscow and was accused of treason in the form of espionage. On December 14, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Vetrov to death. February 23, 1985 the sentence was carried out.

In September 2009, the French film Farewell ( L'affaire Farewell ) was released, based on the events surrounding the Vetrov affair ^[2] . The main role is Emir Kusturica .

• Colonel Vetrov, aka Farrewell agent , Stanislav Lekarev, Vladislav Kramar, "Independent Military Review", N 15.
• An explosion of mistrust. Does the Farewell dossier contain lies?
• The Case of Farwell (The New York Times)