Loghman Madayen’s Note — Writer and Researcher / We Are Terribly Under Russian Colonial Domination!
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Loghman Madayen, writer and researcher, in an exclusive note unveiled the Soviet and later Russian influence in Iran. He asserted that the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), led by Masoud and Maryam Rajavi, are the Russian foot soldiers tasked with preventing the improvement of Iran-U.S. relations:
September is a crucial month in Iran’s political calendar, and to analyze current conditions accurately, it must not be overlooked. Amid the turbulence of the revolution’s sensitive days, Talqani—the sole public orator—was assassinated. His children have repeatedly stated in various interviews that their father was murdered by the Russians.(1) His daughter, Ms. Tahereh, discovered through her research that on the night of the assassination, the Soviet ambassador, accompanied by a delegation, visited Talqani and spoke with him for two hours. It is reported that Talqani had just washed his hands preparing for dinner when the Russians arrived; he shook hands with the ambassador but soon felt nauseous and suffered a heart complication, allegedly due to the ambassador’s poisoned ring.
Mehdi, Mojtaba, and Tahereh Talqani repeatedly requested an autopsy, but each time their plea was denied on the grounds that it was impossible to perform an autopsy on such a great scholar.
Both of Talqani’s household phones were cut off simultaneously, likely to prevent him from contacting the other house after being poisoned. Documents specifically belonging to him were stolen from his special chest. His personal bodyguard disappeared that night, his driver—who was supposed to be on 24-hour duty—quit, and several nights earlier, the homes of his relatives were burglarized with some documents taken. His children’s house was also broken into, searching for remaining documents, indicating he was targeted. When his health worsened, his father-in-law—who hosted that night—noticed the phone lines were cut. Instead of alerting neighbors loyal to Talqani or rushing to nearby hospitals, he went to his trusted physician, who arrived with only a partial oxygen supply and found Talqani already dead.
Talqani was killed on September 10, but the timing of this assassination is important. It occurred just as he took very harsh stances against the PMOI,(2) a position that dealt a severe blow to the organization. Until that day, Ayatollah Talqani was the PMOI’s only supporter. On Eid al-Fitr, August 24, 1979, he distanced himself from them, leaving the organization vulnerable; 17 days later, he was targeted. Had Talqani survived, the PMOI could not have taken up arms or sacrificed the people. His words held authority over PMOI sympathizers and were more influential than Masoud Rajavi’s.
Was Talqani the only Russian victim? No. To answer, we must look seven months before the Prime Minister’s bombing—on February 16, 1981—when Mr. Rajai confronted the Soviet ambassador diplomatically but sharply,(3) calling them Iraq’s main supporter, a primary arms supplier, and labeling the USSR an aggressor for invading Afghanistan. He stated, “You are not beside us but with Saddam against us.” The ambassador was so shocked he couldn’t reply. Less than a year later, Rajai was assassinated. The anniversary of the Prime Minister’s bombing was August 30, and I believe Rajai joined the Soviet assassination list in the fall of 1980. Even Ayatollah Khomeini, who declared China and the USSR as enemies of the people, was on this list,(4) with Kashmiri serving as the link.(5) Kashmiri initially planned to assassinate Khomeini; after failing, his mission changed. Kashmiri was a PMOI member but who was the PMOI? A security contractor who officially cooperated with the USSR since 1975, as revealed in Soviet Communist Party documents(6) and statements by Mr. Mousavi Tabrizi.(7)
Speaking of Kashmiri, it is worth mentioning Mr. Lajevardi, who despite serious faults played a key role in disrupting the Soviet game in Iran. His assassination anniversary was August 23. I always emphasize: regardless of anyone’s flaws, was Lajevardi without merits? Hitler committed atrocities against Jews but was not a good painter or architect? Hitler himself admitted that if he had been accepted into art academy, his life path would have changed.(8) We should examine what triggered Lajevardi’s fierce stance against the PMOI.(9) You may approve or disapprove of his actions, hate or like him, but if he achieved one historically important act, it was arresting Mohammadreza Saadati—the PMOI’s Moscow liaison—who was about to deliver secret files of Soviet spy General Moqarebi in exchange for large arms shipments. Interrogations revealed the PMOI’s Soviet dependency from 1975—shortly after the organization’s ideological shift.(10)
This action was vital because without discovering the PMOI-Soviet connection, we would hardly understand Russia’s machinations. Saadati, less than a month before the Prime Minister’s bombing, spoke out. Lajevardi, through arresting Mr. Tariqi and questioning Hatami, Hadavi, Tehrani, and Nili, concluded that Kashmiri received secret intelligence files via Akbar Tariqi to Saadati.(11)
Once Kashmiri realized he was exposed, he hastily arranged the Prime Minister’s bombing and fled Iran within a month. Saadati’s last mission was to kill Lajevardi, who was a frontline enemy of the PMOI and Soviet foot soldiers.(12)
There is much to say about Lajevardi’s focus on the PMOI. While the Republican Party’s decision to corner the PMOI so they would resort to arms and be destroyed is another analysis, Lajevardi had strong evidence of deep Soviet infiltration in Iran, all tracing back to the PMOI. In a context of Saddam’s invasion, escalating terror and bombings, sanctions, and political chaos, discovering a foreign infiltration is grave. What would you do? Saadati warned Talqani on October 31, 1978, saying: “Tell Khomeini not to form a government! Your government will cause a confrontation leading to your defeat. We have our own government and members chosen.” This clearly shows the USSR even calculated the next government and could not tolerate disruption.(13)
I believe Lajevardi was targeted from the start of Soviet mole purges, facing death multiple times. In my research, a bomb was found in an Evin prison official’s car aimed to be placed under Lajevardi’s car. By chance, a guard escorting the car discovered and defused the plot.
The threat was so serious that after Kazem Afjei’s case, Lajevardi prepared an escape rope hanging from his window to flee if interrogators attacked.(14) Many such attempts occurred.
Lajevardi’s son complains that the security apparatus knew his father’s life was at risk and assassination squads frequently ambushed near their home, yet no protection was provided,(15) likely due to infiltration accepting Lajevardi’s death.
Merchants recall how Lajevardi would rush from his shop checking the area when loud noises occurred, showing his constant fear of assassination.
His son’s claim is huge but consistent with evidence: who led security? Saeed Emami! Emami’s parents were Communists,(16) and research shows Mr. Ali Sobhani was Emami’s right hand, holding secret documents. After Emami’s arrest, Ali Sobhani was moved by a textile market team to an unknown place and vanished. Leadership ordered investigations; families were shown various corpses claiming them as Ali Sobhani, but none were accepted. A late mystic who knew both Ayatollah Ghazi and Khomeini told close associates that the missing man was alive in Moscow with a new family, relocated due to death threats. This is critical: why should Russia infiltrate so deeply?
Thus, those inside who mourned Emami as a martyr should see the Russian footprint clearly.
But Soviet fingerprints on revolutionary figure assassinations do not end here. After debating with Kianouri of the Tudeh Party—since 1941 the Soviet Communist Party’s Iranian branch—Mr. Beheshti exposed their betrayal to the nation and humiliated Russia,(17) and was soon added to the assassination blacklist, killed within a month. Documents show Javad Ghadiri, a PMOI infiltrator, promised Mortaza Nili on the night of Khamenei’s assassination attempt, July 28, 1981, that PMOI would soon rule Iran!(18)
For decades, Russia intended to colonize Iran. At one time, Timurtaash planned a coup to replace Reza Khan with a Russian puppet,(19) but when Mohammad Reza aligned with the U.S., Russian sensitivity increased, like Russia’s reaction to Ukraine joining NATO. The Shah’s security pact with America opposed the USSR.(20)
The SAVAK “Salt 1” project was part of broader programs “Ibex” and “Dark Gene” under Iran’s Air Force. The U.S. invested by placing surveillance equipment along Iran-Soviet borders, monitoring up to 300 km inside Soviet territory and analyzing the data. The USSR discovered this and exploited the PMOI’s ideological change, ordering them to assassinate two American advisers.(21)
Who were those advisers? Little is spoken about this: Hassan Hosnan, a local U.S. embassy employee in Tehran, was identified by intelligence and played a key role in assassinating two U.S. advisers on May 21, 1975, by Vahid Afrakhteh’s team. Hosnan himself was killed less than two months later, July 3, 1975, by the organization.
These two advisers oversaw two CIA listening posts in northern Iran at Behshahr and Kabkan; 2 of 5 U.S. sites in Khajir, Tehran, Moghan, Behshahr, and Kabkan that spied on the USSR. Their belongings fell into Russian hands after the attack.(22)
When the U.S. recognized the revolution and diplomatic ties warmed, the USSR couldn’t tolerate it. The Americans quickly formed the best relations with the new government, presenting documents about Iraqi tank divisions moving from Jordan to Iran’s border to prepare for Saddam’s attack,(23) signaling impending security cooperation and Iran slipping from Soviet control. So, a trigger was needed to break Iran-U.S. ties—what stronger act than the embassy attack?(24)
The Fedai Guerrillas and the PMOI, as Soviet foot soldiers,(24) were the first to attack the U.S. embassy, handing it over to Imam Line students,(25) a disastrous defeat still celebrated ignorantly.
They called the embassy a den of spies, but aren’t embassies supposed to monitor the host country? Without proper intelligence, how can diplomacy function? This is global protocol. The U.S. president even wrote to Khomeini addressing him as “Excellency,” warning some sought to sever ties and urging dialogue, but Soviet foot soldiers were not limited to Fedai and PMOI.(26) This marked the start of Iran’s colonial era.
In 1985-86, the U.S. tried reopening Tehran-Washington channels via the McFarlane affair, as Imad Mughniyeh captured seven Americans and Iran needed weapons. It was a win-win deal,(27) but the USSR exposed it. The PMOI, after Masoud Rajavi fled and Musa Khiabani died, went to Iraq, which Saddam supported against Iran as the USSR’s biggest backer, enabling a new chapter of betrayal during McFarlane.(28)
Iran’s nuclear dossier was always important to Russia. Despite recent Belarusian claims to arm allies with nukes,(29) research shows the USSR tried selling two nuclear warheads to Iran to isolate it from the global community by staging explosions in Iraq’s deserts, forcing Saddam’s surrender and Iran’s victory. Hashemi relayed this to Khomeini, who forbade any use of WMDs.(30) Later, it emerged these warheads were diplomatic traps, never meant to detonate. The PMOI helped expose Iran’s nuclear file, putting Russia in a double game: the West gave Russia more concessions to block aid to Iran; Iran gave Russia more to covertly help. The Security Council veto became a thorn against Iran, expanding Western distance and deepening Iranian dependence on Russia amid crippling sanctions.
Next, the PMOI targeted Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, assassinating him.(31) Who was he? When killed in fall 2011, he was developing the Bavar-373 system—a modernized S-300 system. Russia refused to deliver S-300,(32) and Moghaddam intended to domestically produce it.(33) Meanwhile, Iran sued Russia for reparations at the International Court of Justice,(34) and Russia sought to stop both the lawsuit and Bavar-373’s development. Moghaddam’s assassination delayed the project by years, benefiting Russia.(35)
Later, Russia’s destructive role emerged in obstructing the JCPOA and excluding Iran from Syria’s economic markets. Mr. Zarif clearly explained that while the PMOI was active in the White House and Congress, Russia obstructed negotiations and turned off Syria’s air defenses, allowing Israel to bomb Iranian sites over 500 times.(36)
Thus, despite the PMOI’s ties to senior U.S. officials due to large financial aid, they never severed Russian ties or shifted toward America.
This miscalculation persists: the PMOI never broke with Russia. In my view, they deliberately grew in the U.S. over decades, their every act benefiting Russia. Americans unknowingly play Russia’s game, with PMOI as America’s closest ally to prevent Iran-U.S. rapprochement. Their mission is defined thus. The West, if serious about exposing Russian affiliates, must first dismantle the PMOI, or else it will never understand they are Russia’s agents. The West’s strategic error is assuming Iran seeks nuclear weapons. Now that Belarus officially offers nukes to Russia allies, any sane person knows Russia prefers others to launch nukes if war occurs.
Looking deeper, the PMOI’s armed phase escalated the revolution’s political climate, suppressing peaceful civil struggle, creating a one-party structure. This continues today: whenever unarmed people protest peacefully, PMOI agents infiltrate, incite violence, and escalate unrest—a long-standing, dictatorial Russian tactic to maintain a one-party monopoly.
Hence, we have always been weak against Russia. More precisely: we are terribly under Russian colonial rule! They orchestrated a soft coup; beyond the issues described, they prevented permanent membership of the popular government in international organizations and pacts, obstructed the JCPOA, withheld vaccines during COVID to let Iranians suffer while waiting for their favored government to supply vaccines, dragged us into their warmongering and imperialism—clear evidence of a coup determining our government. Russians well understand Iran can be ruled by force but not governed steadily.
They first established power control infrastructure, removed other powers, and a century after the failed Soviet coup bringing Timurtaash’s puppet to power, now a government is firmly rooted. Even spy narratives always mention American, Israeli, or British agents, never Russian spies; their confessions are never shown! Are spies different? There is abundant, unspoken evidence of Russian interference. If today’s leaders had Mr. Rajai’s courage, they would confront Russia and prevent the revolution’s deviation from the “Neither East nor West” slogan.
Sources
- Khabar Online – September 10, 2017 (19 Shahrivar 1396) – Code: 705764
- Kayhan Newspaper – September 9, 2023 (18 Shahrivar 1402) – Code: 272696
- Fars News – February 16, 2014 (27 Bahman 1392) – Code: 13921126001456
- Imam Khomeini Portal – Sahifeh, Vol. 4, p. 156
- HamMihan Newspaper – August 31, 2023 (9 Shahrivar 1402) – “Infiltration and Operations”
- Tasnim News – September 13, 2014 (22 Shahrivar 1393) – Code: 496900
- Radio Farda – August 30, 2011 (8 Shahrivar 1390) – Interview of Shahram Tabari with Abbas Milani
- Didban Iran – January 22, 2022 (2 Bahman 1400) – Code: 124796
- Mein Kampf – Adolf Hitler Memoirs – Vol. 2, p. 36
- “Imam’s Companions According to SAVAK” – Volume 6 – Handwritten notes of Seyed Asadollah Lajevardi
- KGB in Iran by Kozichkin
- Fars News – March 11, 2018 (21 Esfand 1396) – Code: 13961109000621
- Fars News – June 29, 2013 (8 Tir 1392) – Code: 13920408000881
- Fars News – June 30, 2023 (9 Tir 1402) – Code: 14020409000206
- Revolution Document Center – August 23, 2023 (1 Shahrivar 1402) – Code: 8509
- Abdollah Shahbazi Website – May 14, 2008 (24 Ordibehesht 1387)
- Jomhouri Eslami Newspaper – April 30, 1983 (11 Ordibehesht 1362)
- Ferdows Memoirs – Vol. 1, p. 53
- Tarikh Irani Website – September 26, 2015 (4 Mehr 1394) – Code: 7948
- Saraye Ghalam – Interview with Abdolreza Davari & Mehdi Khazali on 13 Aban
- National Interest – August 2011 – Abbas Milani
- Institute for Political Studies and Research – Soviet Spies
- Tabnak News – July 19, 2018 (28 Tir 1397) – Code: 817637
- Shargh Newspaper – August 31, 2022 (9 Shahrivar 1401) – Code: 854847
- Fars News – May 29, 2023 (8 Khordad 1402) – Code: 14020308000282
- Ensaf News – June 30, 2019 (9 Tir 1398) – Code: 177661
- UPI USA Website – September 2010 – Russia Withdraws from Iran Arms Deal
- IRNA – April 2012 – Code: 80083185
- Mizan News – May 20, 2016 (31 Ordibehesht 1395) – Code: 176015
- Radio Farda – April 25, 2021 (5 Ordibehesht 1400) – Code: 31222216
- IRNA – January 24, 2019 (4 Bahman 1397) – Code: 83182672
