Mahmoud Abbas / AP
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was a Soviet agent working for the KGB in Damascus, Syria in 1983, Israel’s Channel 1 reported Wednesday.
Channel 1’s foreign news editor Oren Nahari reported that documents from the Mitrokhin Archive, upheld by KGB defector Vasily Mitrokhin, show Abbas was once a Soviet spy.
The documents were obtained by Israeli researchers Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez and reportedly reveal that Abbas, with the code name Krotov (which means “mole”), worked for Vladimir Putin’s current envoy to the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, who was stationed in Damascus in 1983, the Times of Israel reported.
The Mitrokhin Archive is known for being one of the best sources of information on Soviet intelligence operations. Mitrokhin has said that the KGB recruited the “then-head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Wadi Haddad, as an agent in the 1970s,” according to the Times of Israel.
It is unclear from the documents if Abbas was an agent before or after 1983.
Full article: Report: Soviet Docs Show Palestinian President Was Once KGB Agent in Syria (Washington Free Beacon)
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