Soviet Union: Pravda article by Mustel and others denies unexplained UFO sightings
On February 29, 1968, Evald Rudolfovich Mustel, D. Martynov and V. A. Leshkovtsev published an article in Pravda claiming there had been no unexplainable UFO sightings on Russian soil; from then on, pro-UFO articles were forbidden by state censorship.
Background
On February 29, 1968, Evald Rudolfovich Mustel, chairman of the Soviet Astronomical Services, D. Martynov, president of the All-Union Astronomical and Geodetic Society, and V. A. Leshkovtsev, secretary of the National Committee of Soviet Physicists, published an article in Pravda claiming that there had been no unexplainable UFO sightings on Russian soil and calling UFOs 'anti-Soviet products of decadent capitalistic warmongering.' From this point on, pro-UFO articles were forbidden by state censorship. Some members of the disbanded UFO Study Group wrote letters to Pravda insisting that UFO identification was essential for defense; Academician A. Shchukin responded that the Academy of Sciences was already doing that. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.