Item BRINK OF APOCALYPSE 3/5 - Interview with Vladimir Kryuchkov, Head of KGB, [2007]

Typescript transcript of interview with Vladimir Kryuchkov, Head of KGB. Subjects include US & USSR policy on conflicts; Operation RYAN; KGB sharing information with GRU; Reagan’s missile launch joke; ;KGB/GRU Situations Room; registered signs of nuclear presence and monitored levels of danger; Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) and Star Wars; Americans bluffing about a real war; the relationship between Kryuchkov and Andropov in the final months of Andropov’s life; Americans violating USSR airspace, the shooting down of Korean Airlines flight KAL 007 and claims that Korean Airlines flight KAL 007 was a military Boeing 747 and not a civilian plane; Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech, 1981; telegrams about Kryuchkov’s concerns; American plans of aggression from sea and air; the tense period between 8-9 November 1983; Andropov and Politburo awareness of tensions; USSR’s lack of plans for conflict after World War Two and USSR retaliation had it been attacked. Original interview conducted in Russian, transcript in English 30pp