Russia: Deputy Minister confirms UFO encounters
Soviet Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Tretyak confirmed that fighter pilots encountered unidentified objects in Russian airspace. Most cases were natural or man-made, but some appeared artificial with unknown origins.
[Dolan Vol.2 enrichment]: Dolan Vol.2 provides Tretyak's full statement: On November 9, 1990, Soviet Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Tretyak speaks with Literaturnaya Gazeta, a large weekly newspaper. His credentials are impressive — Commander in Chief of Air Defense Forces, General of the Army, and the boss of General Igor Maltsev who investigated the March 21, 1990 UFO encounter. Tretyak confirms fighter-interceptors had encountered UFOs in Soviet air space. The 'unidentified flying machine' of March 21 was photographed by interceptor pilots and gave off optical and thermal signals, although it had some 'stealth-like' capacity that blocked airborne radar. 'It was definitely not an airplane,' Tretyak says. He openly states some UFOs were 'real' and at one point seems to consider an extraterrestrial explanation. Elsewhere he hedges: 'I believe something else. That modern science and technology are capable of creating such spacecraft that could appear above us... You have to believe in man's ingenuity.' He gives a 'very curious answer' as to why no order was given to shoot down the March 21 object: 'It would be foolhardy to launch an unprovoked attack against an object that may possess formidable capacities for retaliation.'