Russia's intelligence service marks its renowned agent's centenary

MOSCOW, August 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian Foreign Intelligence
Service (SRV) this Sunday celebrates the centenary of famous spy Ivan
Agayants, the man who managed to outright defeat Hitler's favourite and
the Third Reich's recognized intelligence ace Otto Skorzeny.
SRV press bureau chief Sergei Ivanov told Itar-Tass that Agayants
during World War II was the head of Soviet agents in Iran, where he
displayed outstanding abilities in intelligence work.
In 1943, the meeting of the anti-Hitler coalition leaders -- Joseph
Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill -- took place in Iran,
the historic Tehran Conference. The Soviet intelligence service ahead of
the time received information about the Nazi's plans to commit an act of
terror against the Group of Three. By efforts of the operational staff of
the agents and Agayants personally, the Nazi's network of agents
controlled by Skorzeny was uncovered. The excellently conducted operation
of the Soviet intelligence service resulted in the complete failure of the
enemy's plans, the official said.
Agayants was born on August 28, 1911 in the city of Gyandzha in a
teacher's family. In 1930, he moved to Moscow and was admitted to the
economic department of the OGPU (State Political Department). Six years
later, he was transferred to the foreign department -- the foreign
intelligence service. With his faculty for languages, he learned French,
Spanish, Persian and Turkish. Later, he learned English and Italian. In
1937, Agayants was sent for operational work to Paris. After the fall of
the republican regime in Spain, he participated in the operation to take
Spanish anti-fascist movement leaders to Moscow.
When World War II began, he was appointed an agent in Iran, and
during the yeas of his work in the country, he carried out Moscow's
assignments connected with operations against Nazi Germany in a number of
North African and Middle East countries. The results of the agents' work
in Tehran during the period were very highly praised by Soviet political
leaders, who publicly noted that the important intelligence information
received by Soviet agents in Iran played a significant role for the
military command and the country's leadership to take political and
military strategic decisions.
Since 1948, Agayants worked at supervisory posts in the foreign
intelligence service. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner,
the Labour Red Banner, the Great Patriotic War, two Red Star Orders, many
medals and badges of an honoured security officer.
Many glorious names of outstanding intelligence agents, true patriots
of the country and the service, are written down in the SRV history, and
among them is Maj-Gen Ivan Agayants, Ivanov noted.