14 Facts About Vladimir Vetrov

Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov was a high-ranking KGB spy during the Cold War who decided to covertly release valuable information to France and NATO on the Soviet Union's clandestine program aimed at stealing technology from the West.

Vladimir Vetrov was known by that name throughout NATO's intelligence services.

Vladimir Vetrov's history inspired the book Bonjour Farewell: La Verite sur la Taupe Francaise du KGB by Sergei Kostin.

Vladimir Vetrov was born in 1932 and grew up within the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Vetrov returned to Moscow at the end of his posting, with a subsequent posting to Montreal, though Vladimir Vetrov was recalled prematurely for reasons that are unclear.

Vladimir Vetrov asked for no payment or any promise of extrication to the West, since his motivation was frustration with the Soviet system, and a personal grudge against his superiors.

Between the spring of 1981 and early 1982, Vladimir Vetrov, code-named FAREWELL, gave the DST almost 4,000 secret documents, including the complete official list of 250 Line X officers stationed under legal cover in embassies around the world, causing a breakdown of the Soviet espionage effort to obtain scientific, industrial and technical information from the West.

One report states that information provided by Vladimir Vetrov "neutralized 422 KGB officers and 54 Western agents working for the KGB and the USSR bloc".

In February 1982, after heavy drinking caused by a cooling-off period imposed by the French, who were fearful of his discovery through too much contact, Vladimir Vetrov stabbed his mistress during an argument in his car.

Vladimir Vetrov was arrested, tried, and sentenced to 12 years in jail in the fall of 1982.

The KGB promised that he would not be executed if he provided a confession; Vladimir Vetrov did so but was charged with treason, convicted by the Supreme Court and executed on 23 January 1985.

The information which Vetrov provided enabled the western countries to expel nearly 150 Soviet technology spies around the world, including the 47 mentioned above, most of whom were from Line X This caused the collapse of the Soviet's information program at a time when it was particularly crucial.

Vladimir Vetrov was responsible for exposing the spy Dieter Gerhardt, a senior officer in the South African Navy who had been spying for the Soviets for 20 years.

Vladimir Vetrov provided information hinting at a Polish coup d'etat, and alleging a link between the Soviet Union and the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.