The Friendship Drug

Did the Russians spike Kekkonen's drink?
By Teemu Luukka
Helsingin Sanomat
30.3.2005

I recently received a startling e-mail. It contained an extract from a
book published in the United States in 2000, according to which the
Russians had used something called a "friendship drug" on Finnish
President Urho Kekkonen and the leadership of the Finnish Communist Party.

The book was written by Joseph D. Douglass, who has a doctorate
from the renowned Cornell University, and who has studied the use of
drugs in international politics for several decades. The extract was
from the book Betrayed, on how various medications and drugs were used
to influence prisoners of war.

The book tells about how governments in various countries - especially
the Soviet Union - became interested in synthetic drugs in the 1950s.
The Russians tested drugs which undermine will power on clergy and
others considered suspect by the Soviet system.

The drugs were placed in people's drinks, and apparently were
administered in such a way that the victims could not recognise the
effect of the substance. The goal was to get the victims to agree with
the Russians after a few days.

The allegations are quite astounding, but are they true?

First we must ask Finnish experts about the matter. One expert
on the history of the communists, Kimmo Rentola, says that he has
never heard that the Russians would have given Kekkonen anything
stronger than vodka. Timo Vihavainen, a professor of Russian studies,
also says that he knows nothing of any such activities.

But what about Kekkonen's biographer Juhani Suomi, who knows
more about Kekkonen's activities than anyone else in Finland? He has
also never heard that Kekkonen would have been under the influence of
the friendship drug.

"It would certainly have been noticed. In negotiations there was
always someone there who was sober, and a doctor would have noticed in
the morning at the latest if Kekkonen was behaving in an exceptional
manner", Suomi insists.

But what does Dr. Douglass base his claim on? On the basis of
biographical data, the man would seem worthy of being taken seriously.
He has a long history in research institutes studying security
matters, as well as a career in the US Defence Department.

The book does not actually say when the Russians might have
slipped Kekkonen a Mickey.

The former Finnish President is mentioned in a part of the book
explaining how seminars would often be held in Czechoslovakia, where
participants would unwittingly consume the friendship drug during
breakfast. The book does not actually claim that Kekkonen would have
been drugged specifically in Czechoslovakia. Kekkonen paid a state
visit to Czechoslovakia only once, on October 1st - 4th, 1969.

All I can do is to ask Dr. Douglass himself.

"Sorry I can not provide additional details. You are most
unlikely to obtain any 'documents' because of their sensitivity and
because such materials would be written in code language and be very
obscure to anyone who did not know what the words meant", Douglass
wrote in an e-mail.

He says that he heard about Kekkonen being drugged from Jan
Sejna. "Jan Sejna died in 1997 before I could learn more details about
this operation", Douglass wrote.

"What he said is what I wrote. He did mention Kekkonen as one of
the targets, as I recall, and I believe he was talking about the early
50s or thereabouts."

Jan Sejna was a famous man. He was a major-general, and served for a
long time as a member of the Central Committee of Czechoslovakia's
Communist Party. He also led Czechoslovakia's Ministry of defence.

Shortly before his death Sejna admitted in the US Senate that he
smuggled 200 American prisoners of war from Vietnam to the Soviet
Union, and that the Soviet Union used drugs on the American POWs.

He defected from Czechoslovakia to the United States in 1968. He
is one of the highest-ranking communist leaders ever to escape to the
west.

After his defection, the communists claimed that he was a drug
dealer.

Sejna's information has been used by various people, including
former Soviet expert, the present US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

Not everyone in Finland likes Sejna. In his memoirs, he described how
Soviet Defence Minister Andrei Grechenko had said during a meeting
that Finland had promised to put its transport facilities at the
disposal of the Soviet Union if war breaks out between the Warsaw Pact
and NATO.

It has not been possible to verify that claim either.


(via Marius)