US Senator Richard Russell Saw Two UFOs Taking Off In Russia During The Cold War

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has investigated hundreds of UFO cases without releasing the information into the public domain. The agency has been serious about UFOs since the 1940s. The CIA kept them secret for 50 years until the 1990s, after being pressured by ufologists. It is etched in history that top US officials, including Presidents Carter and Regan, claimed to have seen UFOs that added a huge boost to UFO research.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Russians and Americans were concerned about waves of UFO sightings. The first official report of a UFO sighting in the United States came on June 24, 1947, when Kenneth Arnold saw nine UFOs while looking for a crashed plane near Mount Rainier. Still, the most shocking sighting occurred to US Senator Richard B. Russell while traveling through Russia in 1955.

Senator Richard B. Russell was a well-known figure in the United States. He was a member of the Democratic Party who served as chairman of the Armed Services Committee during two major wars, from 1951 to 1953 and from 1955 to 1969. Under his service, he increased the defense budget to nearly $1 billion, which made him an important asset in the US government, so when he spoke, no one dared to doubt his words.

In fact, Senator Russell saw the flying saucers along with two other officers during his visit to Russia for an extended visit to US military installations in Europe, a sort of fact-finding mission. The details of the incident were mentioned in documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) by the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) under its chairman Dr. Bruce Maccabee.

On October 4, 1955, Senator Russell was traveling on the Soviet train with his military aide Lieutenant Colonel Hathaway and interpreter Ruben Efron in the Transcaucasian region. At around 7 pm, his eyes widened after seeing two disc-shaped objects from his window, taking off near the railroad tracks. He hastily called his two companions to observe the UFO.

Hathaway saw both UFOs taking off, while Efron missed the first. Still, the three managed to see the second UFO together. During this time, Soviet railroad officials covered the windows with curtains and ordered American passengers to stop looking outside.

Senator Russell and his aides reported the sighting shortly after leaving Russia. His statements were taken up by the US Air Force and US intelligence in Prague. For over 30 years, the incident remained classified until 1985, when under the FOIA, CIA, FBI, and USAF documents revealed the shocking details of the case.

Maccabee called this incident a major breakthrough that confirmed the existence of UFOs. He said: “These long secret documents are of great importance because they show for the first time that one of the most powerful US senators witnessed and reported a UFO.”

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Ryan, a US military diplomat at the embassy, ​​presented this top-secret report. According to the report, Lieutenant Hathaway said: “I doubt you’ll believe this, but we’ve all seen it. Senator Russell was the first to see this flying saucer that we’ve been told for years that there is no such thing, but we’ve all seen it.” An extract from the report that was top secret for 30 years

“A disk rose almost vertically, at a relatively low speed, with its outer surface slowly turning to the right, to an altitude of about 6,000 feet, where its speed increased sharply as it headed north. The second flying saucer was seen performing the same actions about a minute later. The take-off area was about 1 to -2 miles south of the rail line.”

Interestingly, Efron added that the UFOs flew by without any noise and there was no sign of exhaust glow. This incident likely shocked the CIA and other intelligence and created a doubt as to whether the Russians were behind the UFO technology. After conducting interviews with Senator Russell and his group, the CIA concluded that their history did not support the theory that the Soviets had developed disc-shaped UFOs. Herbert Scoville Jr., assistant director at OSI, wrote that the objects observed by the trio were likely normal jet planes.

Wilton E. Lexow, head of the CIA’s Division of Applied Sciences, was also skeptical. He wondered why the Soviets continued to develop conventional-type aircraft if they had a “flying saucer”. Scoville asked Lexow to take responsibility for fully assessing the capabilities and limitations of unconventional aircraft and maintaining the OSI’s central file on the subject of UFOs.

It is noteworthy that the Blue Book project never received any information about the case. It shows how delicate this case was for the US government, probably due to the cold war. It was the time when US secret services watched Soviet planes. The only time they could find the finest details of Soviet war equipment was on Russia’s Victory Day. But they couldn’t detect anything described by Senator Russell. Either way, tension in the US government lingered over this mysterious craft. Russell returned to the US safely on 25 October.

Somehow, rumors about his UFO sighting reached the media, but he was unable to provide much information to journalists.