FAREWELL, THE SPY WHO LOVED FRANCE | Case documentaire | France 5

“Farewell” is one of the greatest spy stories of the Cold War. We’re going to reveal the dark side… Farewell, alias of Vladimir Vetrov, is a KGB agent put on the shelf. In 1980, he decides to take revenge and contacts the French counter-intelligence agency, the DST. He offers to provide the list of KGB agents operating abroad, double agents, but also the list of technological and scientific secrets that the KGB has been stealing from the West for decades in every field: nuclear, aeronautics, military and civil… France, Germany, England, but, most of all, the United States thus discover that they are the victims of a gigantic plundering enterprise orchestrated by the KGB. By stealing technology from the West, the Soviets managed to pull off a coup: raise themselves to the level of the United States, but saving millions of dollars. In 1981, François Mitterrand, just arrived in power, alerts Ronald Reagan. The American President mounts the counter-offensive. We relate how the United States succeeded in “breaking the back of the KGB” by using a devilish plan that resulted, according to them, in speeding up the fall of the Soviet Union.