Russian television has showed what it said are Russian
intelligence agencies' internal documents aimed at disproving their complicity in the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II. The disclosure came on Russian Ren TV on 15 January, three days after convicted attacker Mehmet Ali Agca was released from a Turkish jail.
Ren TV journalist Igor Prokopenko said his "Military Secret" programme, which frequently covers security issues, had obtained "declassified Foreign Intelligence Service [SVR] documents". The papers were further described as "internal SVR correspondence dealing with the events of 1981".
Video footage showed typewritten page, or pages, wholly in Russian, labelled "secret" at the top. While the document was only partially visible, it consisted of numbered paragraphs starting with phrases "from Rome" or "from Sofia" in parentheses. They appeared to give an account of the attempt to kill John Paul II and said it was committed by "an unknown person". It also mentioned theories flouted in Western press commentaries shortly after the attack, mentioning specifically Italian newspapers La Stampa, Corriere della Sera and Il Tempo.
Some passages on the page were blacked out. The voiceover said: "The identities of those who were associated with this affair are not concealed by accident. Many of those people are still in service."
The voiceover went on to say: "It follows from the documents that the attack on the pontiff, let alone accusations of complicity, came as a complete surprise for the KGB." A man identified as KGB veteran Leonid Kolosov and characterized as a "former Soviet intelligence operative who worked in Rome for many years" contributed next and said: "They all blamed us straightaway, claiming we had arranged all that. But one has to be an idiot to suggest the Soviet Union would have shot a man who approved of its policy of struggle for peace. It's just silly."
The programme said the documents it had obtained mention "three members of Bulgarian embassy staff", arrested a
year after the attack, but later released. Only Sergey
Antonov was named among them. Part of the following passage was highlighted: "p 208 (January 1983) ... [ellipsis as seen on screen throughout] In our analysis of this matter we are presuming that neither Antonov nor the other Bulgarian nationals named in regard to this affair are complicit in the attempt on Wojtyla's [Karol Wojtyla's, Pope John Paul II's] life. In this respect we are working on the basis of what Bulgarian friends are
telling us and the evidence collected by our base [Russ: rezidentura]... It is difficult to conclude on what basis Antonov is being held or discern what might form the foundation of a trial."
The programme said the US Central Intelligence Agency "orchestrated a grandiose operation to misinform public opinion" into believing the eastern bloc was to blame.
It also said the KGB at one point thought the Italian Red Brigades were involved in the assassination attempt and said the armed group received some assistance from China, although it did not say specifically if that assistance was provided for the attack on John Paul II.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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