Lyubov Stepushova
In October 2025, Russia handed over previously classified documents to the US Congress regarding the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy. The dossier includes diplomatic cables and reports, interviews and correspondence between the Soviet leadership and US politicians, and KGB analytical materials from 1963-1964.
As a reminder, the American version is that “communist” Lee Harvey Oswald was allegedly recruited by the KGB while living in Minsk in 1959, where he arrived as a tourist via Finland, seeking political asylum. He returned to the United States in 1962 to assassinate the US president with the goal of “sowing distrust and confusion in American society” at the height of the Cold War.
However, declassified documents (available for download at jfkfacts.substack.com) indicate that Moscow was convinced that this was an organized provocation with the goal of “provoking a wave of anti-communist sentiment in the United States” and destroying the initiator of the emerging détente after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The dossier contains a report by the then Soviet ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Dobrynin , who wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 24, 1963:
“This event (Kennedy’s assassination) bears the hallmarks of a planned transfer of power. Kennedy was removed by forces that viewed his policy of détente as a threat.”
The possible clients in Moscow were considered to be “hawks” in intelligence and the army—those who, after the failed invasion of Cuba, considered Kennedy’s rapprochement with Moscow a betrayal.
Oswald didn’t kill Kennedy.
Soviet analysts almost unanimously define Oswald as a pawn who was used in a larger game.
” Jack Ruby’s quick assassination of Oswald proves they wanted to silence him,” the KGB memo said.
It references amateur eyewitness footage, “which suggests that two people shot the president.” Soviet security officials also noted that the FBI interrogated Oswald two weeks before the assassination without informing the Dallas police, a violation of internal regulations.
Further evidence of a conspiracy, according to the KGB, was the US Department of Justice’s statement on November 27, 1963, about the lack of “evidence” of the presence of other participants in the murder who were present during the preliminary investigation.
The KGB also meticulously collected evidence that cast doubt on Oswald’s involvement in the assassination. For example, a witness from the dormitory where Oswald lived testified that she saw him returning home shortly after 12:45 PM on November 22—just minutes before the assassination attempt. However, American investigators claimed that at that time he was “in a school textbook warehouse, approximately 12 blocks from the assassination site.”
The ballistics test was also found to be fabricated, as the bullet that passed through two bodies (Kennedy and an accompanying person) was “practically undeformed.” KGB analysts also pointed out that it would have been impossible to make three accurate hits in five seconds with the “old Italian rifle” allegedly used as the assassination weapon, given Oswald’s poor marksmanship.
Oswald’s assassination was also a deliberate plot by KGB analysts. Despite the security measures taken and the police cordons, the assassin, who had ties to organized crime, succeeded.
“This is not negligence, but premeditation,” conclude the Soviet security officers.
Oswald was not recruited by the KGB.
Documents on Oswald’s stay in Minsk are presented separately, along with his application for political asylum. The KGB deemed this “inappropriate,” citing his mental instability (he slit his wrists after being denied citizenship) and lack of communist conviction. In a report to party authorities, the KGB noted that Oswald was “insufficiently studied,” so his recruitment was not pursued. However, as the file shows, he was given a good job with a decent salary and free housing in Minsk.
It also includes a note he wrote to the US consulate asking for re-entry in 1962. The dossier thus confirms what Moscow had already claimed in 1963: Oswald was not a KGB agent.
Moscow decided not to make excuses
Based on the agency’s report, the Soviet political leadership concluded that Kennedy’s assassination was a provocation, in which the US military-industrial establishment was interested in stopping Kennedy’s course of improving relations with the USSR after the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the conclusion of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
Moscow has taken note that the “hawks” in Washington are once again taking control of the situation, so it is pointless to help them with the investigation, as it would be seen as “covering their tracks.”
– Pravda.ru
