The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

consulted about ways to install powerful explosive devices. Bogdanov learned that therewas a good sniper among the Zenit operatives, and asked to meet with him personally.“I can hit a target from two kilometers,” the sniper assured Bogdanov.“With what sort of accuracy?”“In daylight, one hundred percent.”On December 3, General Kirpichenko, recently appointed first deputy head ofintelligence, arrived in Kabul. That was an obvious signal that important events werebeginning to unfold.***In early December, Ogarkov, his deputy Akhromeev, and the head of the MainOperational Directorate, Varennikov, made one more attempt to convince the minister ofdefense not to begin military intervention in Afghanistan. Ogarkov spoke at length and withgreat detail, and listed all possible arguments against the intervention. Having listened toOgarkov, the minister asked the head of GlavPUR, Epishev, who was also present, to outlinehis view on the matter.Epishev, who by then had studied the mood and the balance of forces in theministerial leadership, declined a direct response, just to be on the safe side.“The General Staff always has its own opinion,” he said.“Well,” said Ustinov, looking around at nobody in particular, “I will take the opinionof the General Staff into consideration.”“We bestow great hope on you, Dmitry Fedorovich,” uttered Ogarkov, almostpleadingly, in a very personal way. Ustinov did not reply.660