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Witness History: Bugging the US Embassy in Moscow

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Bugging the US Embassy in Moscow

17/10/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Bugging the US Embassy in Moscow

The row over hi-tech spying in America's new diplomatic building in the USSR

How the Soviets hid hi-tech listening devices deep inside the walls of America's new embassy while it was still under construction.

In the mid 1980s the US discovered that the Soviets had hidden listening devices deep inside the walls of its new embassy building in Moscow, while it was still under construction. It sparked a trans-Atlantic row between the two super powers. President Reagan threatened to have the whole building pulled down. Mike Lanchin hears from Thomas Jendrysik, an American engineer stationed at the embassy, tasked with dismantling the secret Soviet equipment.  

(Photo: A US Marine stands guard inside the high fence surrounding the American Embassy construction site in Moscow, May 1983. Credit: Dave Martin/AP Photo)

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