All language subtitles for Damian.Lewis-Spy.Wars.S01E06.Trojan.Horse.iNTERNAL.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE Eng

(dramatic music)

Lewis: Life as a double agent
can cause anyone to break.

The story of vladimir vetrov,
high ranking kgb officer,

And secret operative for the
french intelligence service,

Is one of the most bizarre
to emerge from the cold war.

Part thriller, part charade,

It's a tale of infidelity,

Bravery and betrayal,
that led to one

Of the most astonishing
trojan horse operations

In the history of espionage.

(gun firing)

(man yelling)

And ultimately helped
hasten the collapse

Of the entire soviet system.

(dramatic music)

(somber music)

(dramatic music)

Vladimir vetrov, the
man who would become one

Of the most important
spies of the cold war,

Was born to modest
means in 1932.

He grew up in central moscow,

In a one room flat
with his parents.

Yet from a young age,

It appeared vetrov was
destined for great things.

(camera clicking)

Raynaud: He was a
very clever man.

Clever people are
identified very early on

In the soviet system.

So he was pretty early on
directed to very good studies

And almost like programmed
to become a kgb officer.

Lewis: Intelligent,
and an excellent sportsman,

Vetrov was a popular young man.

He also had a big ego.

Vetrov graduated as an engineer

From one of the country's
top universities.

Then he was handpicked to
join the kgb training school.

(camera clicking)

But he had bigger dreams.

Shortly after graduating,
vetrov met svetlana barashkova,

A renowned beauty
and a top athlete.

The two hit it off immediately.

Within a year,
they were married.

Raynaud: He's happy, he has the
life, he has a nice woman,

He has a nice job,
this perfect life.

(dramatic music)

Lewis: By the late 1960s,

The cold war was
beginning to thaw.

Both the u.S.A. And the
soviet union were keen

To build closer relations.

This era would become
known as detente.

Richard allen worked in
the nixon white house

When the detente
policy was adopted.

Allen: In the strictest sense of
the word, detente means simply,

A relaxation of tensions.

In that sense detente was good

Because relaxing
tensions is exactly

What nations ought to do.

(suspenseful music)
(footsteps tapping)

Lewis: But for the russians,
this was a smokescreen.

Behind the bravado
of the arms race,

The soviets were in
deep economic trouble,

Falling behind america
in almost every area.

They needed detente
as diplomatic cover

For their real mission, to
steal western industrial,

Scientific and
technological secrets.

And that's where
vetrov comes in.

The kgb assigned him
to a department

Known as directorate t,

Responsible for industrial
espionage on a massive scale.

Directorate t was home
to a secretive ring

Of industrial spies,
known as line x.

Raynaud: It was a web of
spies spread out

Pretty much everywhere

In the world that was
supposed to bring back home

Technology that the military
industrial complex was using.

Allen: We knew that we were
being ripped off by the soviets.

But I had no idea of the
scale of the rip-off,

The worldwide scale
of the rip-off.

Lewis: At the
heart of the operation,

Was vladimir vetrov.

(bright upbeat music)

As a rising star of the kgb,

Vetrov earned one of its
most glamorous postings.

An important bridge-head
between east and west,

Paris was a happy hunting
ground for soviet intelligence.

It was also the dream posting

For any kgb agent, and his wife.

Raynaud: They were coming from
the ussr in the '60s

It was pretty gray

And they arrive
in the gay paris.

In France was just
the biggest time ever,

The temps glorieuses as we
call them,

Life was so easy here.

Lewis: Wining,
dining, and having fun was

What vetrov enjoyed
more than anything else.

(people chattering)

Mikhail lyubimov was
a kgb spy in london

At the same time
vetrov was in paris.

He knew how attractive
western life could be

For a young soviet officer.

Lyubimov: He was a man who
liked life,

A typical hedonist who
likes wines, women,

Oh, a man who likes life
very much, too much!

Lewis: But it wasn't
all champagne and oysters.

Vetrov had a crucial mission,

To recruit french scientists
to the soviet cause,

And to steal their secrets.

Raynaud: He was doing the job
of getting acquainted

To french scientists to
extort them information,

He was an agent.

(camera clicking)

Lewis: But it wasn't
long before the bright lights

And freedoms of
paris made vetrov

And svetlana question the merits

Of the soviet system
they had left behind,

To the watching
french intelligence service,

The dst, this open criticism

Of the soviet regime
was a red flag.

Raymond nart worked for
the dst at the time.

He believed vetrov might be
persuaded to defect to the west.

He instructed a contact,

A man named jacques
prevost, to monitor him.

(camera clicking)
(quiet thoughtful music)

(people chattering)

The french
watched and waited

For the right time
to make their move.

(dramatic music)

Then, vetrov got himself
into a spot of bother.

(traffic whooshing)

(glass crashing)

Vetrov couldn't
tell his kgb bosses

About the crash,

It would have been
catastrophic for his career.

Raynaud: Crashing the embassy
car is something

That could have brought you
back to russia right away.

Lewis: Overnight,
the car was fixed,

Painted and returned,
good as new.

Prevost had made
the problem go away.

(dramatic music)

Vetrov promised that one day

He would repay the favor
to his friend prevost.

Vetrov was now a
spy who owed a debt

To a member of a foreign
intelligence service.

And in the world of spies,
debts are always collected.

(suspenseful music)

By July 1970, vladmir
vetrov was one

Of the top kgb spies in paris.

Enjoying everything
the city had to offer.

But the good times were
about to come to an end.

(camera clicking)

The kgb allowed their
agents to stay abroad

For just five years at a time.

Vetrov, and his
glamorous wife svetlana,

Had to return home.

But back in moscow, the
cold war was a lot colder.

(dramatic music)

Life was hard, luxuries much
more difficult to come by.

Their return was a
bitter pill to swallow.

Raynaud: That was a kind
of dream life

And they were in
paradise almost,

And then they went back to hell.

Lewis: Vetrov realized
that the kgb was no longer

The meritocracy in which he
had thrived as a younger man.

Raynaud: The big change
that there was

Between the soviet
union of the '60s

And the soviet union
of the '70s was

That competence was
not any more the issue.

Lewis: Now,
those at the top came

From the party hierarchy,
known as the nomenklatura.

(gentle music)

Vetrov was side-lined
into a dead end desk job.

Raynaud: He got
totally put aside

And all opportunity of
promotion was over for him,

He knew that.

(tense music)

Raynaud: He was enraged at the
incompetence of the

People above him

And the unfairness that
has been done to him.

Lewis: As vetrov's
career crumbled,

So too did his marriage.

Raynaud: You're going back
home in a gray country,

Of course the relationship

And the couple are
gonna be not as ideal

As it was during the dream
life they had in paris.

Lewis: Both he and
svetlana became embroiled

In a string of affairs.

Once the kgb's golden boy,

Vetrov was now
stuck in his office,

Bored, drinking himself
into an early grave.

Raynaud: His punishment was
kind of a chinese torture

Of day to day
going to the office

And having to obey to people

That were a lot less
bright than him.

And since he had a
strong ego of course,

That was just torture
for him everyday.

(suspenseful music)

Lewis: But the kgb had
made a crucial mistake.

Though pushed down
the pecking order,

Vetrov still had access
to a treasure trove

Of secret documents from
line x industrial agents.

Allen: Vetrov was in the
unusual situation

Of receiving stolen technology
from around the world

And being more or less the
distribution point for it,

Whether it would go
to the defense sector,

Whether it would go to
the industrial sector,

Whether it would go to
the intelligence sector.

Major: He saw all the
collection done by the kgb

Around the world on technology.

It funneled into him.

Allen: Vetrov was sitting
on a gold mine.

Raynaud: It wasn't a very
clever move from the kgb

To put some frustrated
guy at the heart

Of the entire spying
network of the soviet union.

It's just giving an ak -47
to an angry kid.

Lewis: Vetrov had reached
his absolute limit,

Both personally
and professionally.

Something had to give.

In December 1980,

Vetrov made the decision
to cross the line

To spy for the enemy.

(dramatic music)

Vetrov had decided
to switch sides.

The only question, to
whom would he turn?

(suspenseful music)

One day, raymond nart, of the
french intelligence service,

Received a letter from his
contact jacques prevost.

Inside was a copy
of an urgent note

That prevost had received,

From his old friend
vladimir vetrov.

Nart knew the name well.

A decade earlier, he
had picked vetrov out

As a potential defector.

By this time,

Nart was head of the
soviet section of the dst.

As the internal french
intelligence agency,

It's the equivalent to mi5,
or the fbi, but much smaller.

Lyubimov: The french
intelligence service is a joke,

Was a joke at least, with no
experience of work in russia.

(dramatic music)

Lewis: Yet the fact
that the dst operated

Only in France, meant that,
unlike mi6 or the cia,

It had not been
infiltrated by kgb moles.

Raynaud: Of course vladimir
vetrov knew that,

And this is why he chose them.

Lewis: Now, for the first time,

Raymond nart and the dst would
have to run an operation,

In moscow, behind
the iron curtain.

As they had no agents in
moscow, how could they run it?

Well, at huge risk, they
chose to approach a civilian.

(dramatic music)

The dst made contact with
a man named xavier ameil.

In his late 50s, with no
training in spy craft,

Ameil was one of the few
french engineers working

In moscow at the time.

When the dst came calling,

Ameil immediately agreed
to act as vetrov's handler.

(dramatic music)

So in March 1981,

The french intelligence
services sent ameil

Into the lion's den, to make
contact with vetrov in moscow.

(dramatic music)

Allen: He could have
fled to France,

And would have been
highly recognized

And celebrated as a
hero of the cold war.

But that's not what he wanted.

Lewis: What vetrov
wanted was to be

Where he could do most
damage to the kgb.

And that was by remaining
in his moscow post

For as long as possible.

(bright music)

When ameil sent vetrov's
documents back to paris,

Raymond nart was stunned.

The dst believed
these documents were

Just the tip of the iceberg.

They instructed ameil

To continue the operation,
codenamed farewell.

Every meeting, vetrov would
hand over a plastic bag,

Stuffed full of state secrets.

Raynaud: Vetrov was giving him
the most secretive documents

Of the kgb on the Friday,

And it took xavier and
his wife the whole weekend

To make copies and return them
to commence on the Monday.

Lewis: Ameil, the
middle-aged engineer,

Had found himself in the midst

Of perhaps the biggest spy
operation of the cold war.

Raynaud: Nobody could suspect
him, he was just an engineer.

It's because he
took no precaution

That the kgb didn't
pay attention to him,

So it was the perfect cover.

Lewis: French
intelligence was pulling off

A major undercover operation

In the world's
biggest police state.

(camera clicking)
(dramatic music)

But there was one big problem.

As a civilian, ameil didn't
have diplomatic immunity.

The dst knew they
were placing ameil

In danger of imprisonment,
possibly even torture and death.

So they decided to pull him out.

But this couldn't be the
end of the operation.

Vetrov was perhaps the west's
most valuable double agent.

And operation farewell
was about to go global.

(gentle music)

On the may the 22nd, 1981,

A frenchwoman known as
marguerite was shopping

In moscow's
cheryomushkinski market.

A housewife and mother of five,

She was about to
become embroiled

In one of the biggest spy
stories of the cold war.

(camera clicking)
(suspenseful music)

Two weeks earlier,

The french intelligence
service had withdrawn

Vladimir vetrov's first handler,
the engineer xavier ameil,

Leaving the kgb spy
out in the cold.

Now raymond nart, the man
in charge of the case,

Had to find a new
handler for vetrov.

(birds squawking)

The french
security services had

No agents working in moscow.

So raymond nart
turned to a friend.

What follows is the voice
of a man codenamed paul

Who to this day can't
appear on camera.

Paul wasn't a spy,

But his job as a military
attache in the french embassy

In moscow, meant he did
have diplomatic immunity.

Yet before any
meeting took place with paul,

An increasingly volatile
vetrov added a condition.

He insisted that the
first contact should be

With a woman and
at a moscow market.

Raynaud: Simply because it
would look more natural

To take and deliver
documents at the market.

So paul went back to moscow
and asked his wife, marguerite.

(camera clicking)
(dramatic music)

Lewis: Out of loyalty to
the west, and to her husband,

Paul's wife marguerite agreed

To a pre-arranged
brush pass with vetrov.

But soon the
strain was simply too much

For marguerite to continue.

(gentle music)

To protect his
wife, paul himself stepped in.

Against his wishes, vetrov
would have to meet with a man,

His third amateur handler
in as many months.

In the 10
months following may 1981,

Vetrov passed more than 4,000
classified documents to paul,

The largest cache of
stolen information ever

To emerge from the soviet union.

This information was known

As the farewell dossier
by french intelligence.

Its contents revealed
the extraordinary depth

Of the soviet's industrial
espionage mission

Against the west.

Raynaud: More importantly,
there were all the codes

Of the radar coverage
of the u.S.A.

So there was a direct threat

To national security
of the u.S.A.

Lewis: As an added prize,

Vetrov also provided a
list of 250 line-x agents

Around the world, some of whom
he had personally recruited.

With information this big,

The french had no choice
but to inform their allies.

It was time to
call the americans.

(film clicking)

Announcer: Ladies
and gentlemen,

The president of
the united states.

(audience applauding)

Lewis: Under the new
president, ronald reagan,

The cold war was
heating up again.

In one speech, he
coined a phrase

That would become infamous.

Reagan: To ignore the
facts of history

And the aggressive
impulses of an evil empire,

In the struggle between right
and wrong, and good and evil.

(audience applauding)

Major: Ronald reagan thought

That the russians did
represent a threat.

He called it an evil empire.

Allen: Ronald reagan said

"the soviets will lie,
cheat and steal

"to get whatever they want."

There was a collective
gasp from the press corps

In the east room of the
white house. (gasps)

I followed president
reagan out to the doors.

He said, "the soviets, they
do lie, cheat and steal

"to get whatever they
want, don't they, dick?"

And I said, "they sure
do, mr president."

And he said, "I thought so."

Lewis: Reagan's
instincts were right.

At the 1981 g7 summit,

French president francois
mitterrand revealed

Vetrov's intelligence to
his american counterpart.

It was proof the soviets were
stealing nuclear, military

And technological secrets
from under the noses

Of the american
intelligence services.

Major: They had such
deep penetrations

Of our technology world

That they knew
what we were doing

And they were one
generation behind it.

This changed everything
about how we deal with it.

Lewis: The americans
sensed an opportunity.

Allen: President reagan
turned to me

And asked me my advice
about how to proceed,

And my advice was to take
this ball and run with it.

Lewis: They came up
with a plan to use vetrov

As a trojan horse, a source
at the heart of the kgb,

Through whom they could
feed faulty technology back

To the russians.

(dramatic music)

Allen: We could bamboozle the
soviets with technology

That wouldn't function
correctly when deployed.

(film clicking)

Lewis: Over the next decade,

Western spies fed this
flawed information

To line-x agents across europe,

Meaning dodgy computer
chips were installed

In military equipment,
and defective blueprints

Undermined the
soviet space program.

(explosion booming)

Some say sabotage by the
u.S. Intelligence service led

To a catastrophic explosion
in a siberian oil pipeline.

The cia's grand plan

Fatally undermined soviet
science and technology.

It was a critical step

Towards the west's eventual
victory in the cold war.

Allen: The whole project
of misinformation

Or disinformation
worked very well.

We were able to disinform them

And mislead them and I
think that was critical.

(dramatic music)

Lewis: But back in moscow,
this entire plan hinged

On an amateur spy, paul,

Picking up vetrov's crucial
intelligence in plastic bags

And photocopying
and returning it

Before anyone
noticed it was gone.

Vetrov and paul were
running a huge risk,

And as the months wore on,
they inevitably became friends.

But the huge
pressure of working

As a double agent was
taking its toll on vetrov.

He was drinking heavily,

And had begun a tempestuous
affair with a kgb translator,

Named ludmila ochikina.

Raynaud: He is using paul
almost as a shrink.

The cold war was
becoming secondary.

(dramatic music)

Lewis: Vetrov's friendship
with paul wasn't enough

To stop him spiraling
out of control,

As their final meeting revealed.

And at the
next scheduled rendezvous,

Vetrov didn't show up.

(dramatic music)

Paul didn't know it then,

But he would never
see his friend again.

Working as a mole had placed
vetrov under enormous strain.

But no-one could have predicted

Just how spectacularly
things would fall apart.

On February the 22nd, 1982,

Russian double agent
vladmir vetrov offered

To drive his mistress ludmila,

A kgb translator,
home from work.

(gentle music)

Stopping in a lay-by on
the outskirts of moscow,

Vetrov surprised his
lover with champagne.

Then, the story goes,
he turned on her.

When a witness
tried to intervene,

Vetrov lost control.

Miraculously,
ludmila survived.

But the bystander, who had
come to her aid, lay dying.

Vetrov's breakdown
had played out

In the most horrific
way imaginable.

And now, perhaps the
most valuable spy

In the cold war was compromised.

The following day,
vetrov was arrested,

And charged with murder.

He refused to reveal
what had driven him

To commit such violence.

One theory
is that ludmila,

The kgb secretary,
knew too much.

Raynaud: I think that in
a very simple way,

She was blackmailing
him, because she knew.

I guess probably he was
trying to negotiate with her,

And it didn't work out,

And it turned into a
sort of horrific scene.

Lewis: Ludmila has
remained mostly silent.

She testified she knew
nothing of vetrov's betrayal,

And that her lover
simply lost his mind.

Raynaud: There was too much
pressure on him, just too much.

Lewis: Vetrov was tried,

And sentenced to 15 years
in prison for murder.

At that point, the soviet
authorities still had

No idea the man they'd
imprisoned was one

Of the most important double
agents of the cold war.

(gentle music)

Locked up in the kgb's
notorious lefortovo prison,

Vetrov was no longer
an active asset

For the u.S. Or the french.

The only contact he had
with the outside world was

Through his estranged
wife, svetlana.

Sergei kostin believes

These letters portray
a man in total denial.

Vetrov even told svetlana,

"my only regret is that I
was not able to kill her."

Although locked away,

Vetrov was still
in great danger,

Because his cellmate happened

To be a kgb counterintelligence
agent, valery rechensky.

Rechensky had been trained

In the art of
extracting information.

And as time went on, his
suspicions about vetrov grew.

(dramatic music)

Rechensky reported
his suspicions

To his superiors.

And the kgb began to question

If vetrov was more
than a murderer.

Lyubimov: At once our people
started to think,

"oh, there is something else
behind the whole affair."

So he got into the trap himself.

(dramatic music)

Lewis: Then, in April
1983, something happened that

In effect, signed
vetrov's death warrant.

The french expelled 47 diplomats

From the soviet
embassy in paris.

Many of them were the same
line x industrial agents

That vetrov had informed on.

It was only a matter of time

Before the kgb traced the source

Of the intel back to vetrov.

Raynaud: They had to use
the information

And using the information

He had provided was condemning
vetrov, and vetrov knew it.

That's why he knew he would die.

Lewis: Vetrov was
questioned and confessed all.

Instead of pleading forgiveness,

He wrote a scorching
condemnation

Of the soviet system,

That he called "the
confessions of a traitor".

Raynaud: He was able for once
to tell them the truth,

Tell them exactly that

They were betraying
the country somehow,

As well, much more than he was.

That was probably the
greatest satisfaction

He must have had.

(camera clicking)
(dramatic music)

Lewis: Today, vladimir
ippolitovich vetrov is

Many things to many people.

Lyubimov: Of course he
is a traitor.

If you belong to some service
you must work in this service

And if you want to become a
traitor, be a traitor, right?

Allen: In my view, vetrov should
be a major hero of the cold war.

He should have as many stars

As he possibly could
have surrounding.

Lewis: One thing is clear,

Vladimir vetrov had a major
impact on the cold war.

Raynaud: Vetrov's case has
accelerated the fall

Of the soviet union
by many years.

So very decisive
historical moment

Which makes of it, of course
to me the greatest spy story

Of the 20th century.

(somber music)

Lewis: In his prison cell,

Vetrov knew that the
kgb only had one way

Of dealing with traitors.

Was he terrified in the
moments before he was executed?

Yeah, probably.

But it's just possible

That there was some small part
of him that felt victorious.

(dramatic music)

Vetrov had always wanted
to achieve great things.

And at the final moment,

He knew that he had changed
the course of history.

(gun firing)

(dramatic music)