BULGARIAN EX-SPY TIES SOVIETS TO POPE PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120095-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 95
• Publication Date: February 8, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120095-6
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WASHINGTON TINES
8 February 1983
ex-s py toes Soviets
Bulgarian to pope plot
By Kevin Scott Winter
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
PARIS - The former No. 2 man in
Bulgaria's state spy service said in an
interview published here that he is
certain Moscow was behind the attempt
to kill Pope John Paul II in the spring of
1981.
"I haven't the least doubt about the
participation of the Bulgarians in this
plot," said Stefan Svertlev, who in 1972
became second in command of the
Komitet Darzhavna Sigurnost (KDS),
Bulgaria's equivalent of the Soviet KGB.
However, the operation wasn't decided
by the Bulgarians alone, he added in the
interview published in Le Figaro
magazine. At that time, Thdor Zhivkov,
leader of Bulgaria, had no particular
reason to eliminate the pope. The
Russians were. certainly behind it,
Svertlev said.
Svertlev defected to the West in the
late 1970s after participating in an
unsuccessful plot to overthrow the
Bulgarian regime- one of six attempts espionage - are both completely
by the military in the last 10 years, controlled by Soviet advisers...all the
according to him. The former colonel secret services in the Eastern bloc are
said he brought out with him a. list of simply branches of the KGB, which we
names of Bulgarian spies operating in call the center."
"Based on my experience in the secret service, I
am certain that the plot against Pope John
Paul II came from an order from Leonid
Brezhnev and was organized by Yuri Andropov,
who was then head of the KGB.
the West, and he said he had witnessed
earlier joint Soviet-Bulgarian operations
similar to the attempt on the pope.
Asked if Bulgaria could have under-
taken the Operation against the pope
alone, Svertlev, answered "absolutely
not... the departments I and II -
specializing in espionage and-counter-
The ex-spy chief explained that John
Paul has awakened such enthusiasm
around the world that he "became
dangerous for Soviet strategic propa-
ganda ... and a threat to Soviet imperialist
policies."
He said the pope's apparent position
as spiritual leader of Poland's Solidarity
movement couldn't be other than-disagreeable to the Russians and appear
as a real danger.
"Based on my experience in the secret
service," he said. "I am certain that the
plot against the life of John Paul II came
from an order from Leonid Brezhnev
and was organized by Yuri. Andropov,
who was then head of the KGB. This
isn't in any way the first time such a
procedure was followed. There are
several precedents, such as the case of
the Ukrainian nationalist Stefan Bandera,
who was murdered in Munich by a KGB
agent."
. . ,
The use of Bulgaria as an intermediary
is a measure of security for the Soviets,
he said. "If something goes wrong, as in
this case, Moscow can avoid an interna-
tional scandal. All the condemnation
would be directed against the Bulgarian
participation, even though their sub-
ordination to Soviet command is as clear
as spring water to anyone who would go
to the trouble of examining the secret
services."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120095-6