Israel’s Channel 1 is reporting that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas served as a Soviet spy in the 1980s. This information comes from a collection of notes smuggled out of the USSR by KGB defector Vasily Mitrokhin.
According to reporter Oren Nahari, uncovered documents from the Mitrokhin archive show that Abbas served as a KGB spy in Damascus in 1983. It is unclear whether Abbas, who went to university in Moscow in the ’80s, was working for the KBG before or after his stint in Damascus.
Breaking: mahmoud abbas palestinian president was k.g.b. agent. document from the mitrokhin archive reveals that abbas was agent in 1983.
— Oren Nahari (@OrenNahari) September 7, 2016
According to The Times of Israel, “The documents… show that Abbas, who was code-named Krotov (mole) worked under Mikhail Bodganov, who was then station posted in Damascus and is now a top Russian diplomat in the Middle East.” Just this week, Bogdanov attempted to broker a summit between Abbas and Netanyahu in Moscow.
The Mitrokhin archive is considered one of the best sources of information about the KGB by researchers. Mitrikhin, who worked as a KGB archivist, brought his summarized notes to the United Kingdom in 1992. His edited notes were released in 2014, though the handwritten version of those notes remain classified.
The report can be seen below, though it is reported in Hebrew:
חשיפה – אבו מאזן היה סוכן של הביון הרוסי בסוריה
Exclusive: Mahmud Abbas – a former KGB agent in syriahttps://t.co/5EhZ1Mtbri@OrenNahari— הערוץ הראשון (@Channel1IBA) September 7, 2016
(Via The Times of Israel)
