Peer Henrik Hansen, a scholar specializing in Cold War intelligence and stay-behind missions, and the U.S. State Department claim the document is a forgery by Soviet intelligence services. The document first appeared in Turkey in the 1970s, before being circulated to other countries. It was also used at the end of the 1970s during Operation GLADIO, to implicate the Central Intelligence Agency in the Red Brigades' kidnapping and assassination of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.