The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

until Bogdanov took the floor. He described the Afghan armed forces with great skepticism,claiming that the army couldn’t even defend itself, let alone the nation of Afghanistan,causing an emotional rebuttal from General Zaplatin.“This isn’t correct,” claimed the general. “It’s true that we should strengthen theAfghan army, but it is unfair to characterize it as lacking the ability to fight. Such an analysiscan mislead our leaders and have damaging consequences.”Bogdanov responded, “I don’t know what kind of information the dear majorgeneral has at his disposal, but our sources tell quite a different story.”A real quarrel ensued. Zaplatin, who didn’t like the “sybarite” Bogdanov, statedopenly that the KGB operatives in Kabul ought to drink less alcohol. “Then their view of thesituation might be clearer.” In response, the KGB representative accused the general ofincompetence and interference in matters that didn’t concern him. “You were sent to Kabulto deal with political activities, so stick to it.” Ponomaryov had some difficulty in calmingthem down.The Politburo candidate was the highest-ranking official to visit Kabul in 1978.According to the unofficial tradition of the time, the Moscow guest had to be given a gift.Osadchiy and Bogdanov asked a security officer by the name of Bakhturin, “SergeiGavrilovich, find out through your source, what would please Boris Nikolayevich?” The“source” was an officer from the Ninth Directorate of the KGB, which was in charge of thepersonal security of Politburo members and candidates. Such a man was in Ponomaryov’sentourage and understood immediately the nature of the question. “Boris Nikolayevich’swife would like to have high-quality Astrakhan fur for a coat.”232