CIA-UAP-010, Report on Conversations with Soviet Scientists on Subject of Unidentified Flying Objects in the USSR

The US scientist visited several astronomical observatories in the USSR in May 1967.

This report is an account of conversational exchanges on the subject of UFO's during the course of a one-month trip of a US scientist through the USSR in the spring of 1967.

V.I. Moroz was noncommittal on the subject of UFOs.

He visited V.I. Moroz, Sternberg Institute, Moscow, who was noncommittal on the subject of UFO's.

A radio astronomer stated he knew of no sightings of UFOs in the USSR.

The scientist who served as translator, a radio astronomer, emphatically stated that he knew of no sightings of UFO's in the USSR.

An astronomer at Pulkovo Observatory mentioned sightings of unidentified objects near the Caucasus.

At the Pulkovo Observatory, Leningrad, one of the astronomers mentioned that she had heard of some sightings of unidentified objects near the Caucasus.

N.A. Kozyrev was interested in the UFO problem and did not accept Menzel's conclusions.

The US scientist's main visit was to N.A. Kozyrev, who was very interested in the problem. He had read Menzel's book (which has been translated into Russian), but did not accept its conclusions.

Reports of UFO sightings are not printed in Soviet newspapers.

Kozyrev knew of some sightings in the northern part of the USSR, but said that reports of such sightings are not printed in Soviet newspapers because they are not regarded as scientific observations.

I.K. Koval and other astronomers saw a curious, reddish object in the sky.

I.K. Koval mentioned that he and several other astronomers had been out in the countryside one evening and had seen a curious, reddish object flashing through the sky.

The object seen by Koval and others might have been a fragment of a satellite or rocket.

However, their immediate interpretation was that this object might have been a fragment of a satellite or rocket returning from orbit, burning up in the atmosphere.

L.I. Galkin confirmed the observation of a peculiar object.

One of the astronomers, L.I. Galkin, was with the group mentioned by Koval and confirmed the observation of a peculiar object.

G.V. Idlis considered Menzel's book an adequate treatment of the UFO subject.

He too had read Menzel's book, but considered it an adequate treatment of the subject which he consequently felt was closed.

G.V. Idlis conceded that the UFO question was still open.

Idlis readily conceded that there might be more to it and concluded by stating that it was 'clearly still an open question.'

In northern Kazakhstan, sightings of ball lightning were actually reflections of automobile headlights.

Another astronomer mentioned that in the northern part of Kazakhstan there had been repeated sightings of ball lightning. The University in Alma Ata had sent a team out to investigate and discovered that what was being seen were reflections of automobile headlights from an inversion layer.

Dr. Kupo was interested in the UFO problem as part of her research on bolides.

A stellar spectroscopist, Dr. [illegible] Kupo, was also interested in this problem, partly as an adjunct to her attempts to locate fragments from bolides.

There is no official treatment of the UFO problem in the USSR.

The general feeling one gets is that no official treatment of the UFO problem has been given in the USSR.