dsp: This was in the early 1980's?
I think at that time the Soviet's thought every American was a CIA operative!
...to continue with that thought. As I said, the Russians still think that way. The Sue Carne/Paula Combs incident would have only reinforced the Russian suspicions.
In October of this year, a Russian television channel broadcast a documentary about "sects" that cast Scientologists and Jehovah's Witnesses as "closely associated with US special services".
TV channel "Zvezda" "exposed" Scientologists and Jehovah's Witnesses
October 17, 2017 on the TV channel "Zvezda" in the program "Conspiracy Theory" was shown the film "Espionage under the guise of religion". The authors of the film, using the example of Scientologists and Jehovah's Witnesses, cited "evidence" that "many representatives of religious minorities, and in fact, sects, are closely associated with US special services."
The film is replete with "anti-sectarian" cliches about "psychotechnics that allow you to completely take control and will, and the mind of a person, and, as a consequence, his soul" , seizures of "adepts", "recruitment", etc.
As experts, "sectologist" Alexander Dvorkin, adviser to the rector of the Moscow State Pedagogical University Yevgeny Spitsyn and head of the department of religious studies of the Kazan Federal University Larissa Astakhova were invited."Had the courage to conduct an honest and objective examination of the stormy activities of Scientologists" , and those "in revenge" organized surveillance of it.
Like in other similar films, Ukraine is a negative example of the intervention of "sects", only according to the authors of this film, Jehovah's Witnesses actively participated in "events on the Maidan".
The creators of the film give recommendations on how to distinguish "sect" and "how to understand that your preacher can be a man with shoulder straps of another state" .
The film ends with a message that the new US ambassador to Russia is a Mormon, from which it is concluded that "the round-up of our souls continues" .