Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov (Russian: Владимир Ипполитович Ветров; 10 October 1932 – 23 January 1985) was a high-ranking KGB spy during the Cold War who decided to covertly release valuable information to France and NATO on the Soviet Union's clandestine program aimed at stealing technology from the West.

He lived in France for five years, beginning in 1965, when posted there as a Line X officer working for the KGB's 'Directorate T', which specialized in obtaining information about advanced science and technology from western countries.

[5] There, he rose through the ranks of Directorate T, eventually supervising the evaluation of the intelligence collected by Line X agents around the world, and passing key information to the relevant users inside the Soviet Union.

Having become increasingly disillusioned with the Communist system, he decided to pass important state secrets to the west for purely ideological reasons, though he eventually and reluctantly accepted 25,500 rubles (roughly equivalent to four years of his salary).

[7] Between the spring of 1981 and early 1982, Vetrov, code-named FAREWELL, gave the DST almost 4,000 secret documents, including the complete official list of 250 Line X officers stationed under legal cover in embassies around the world, causing a breakdown of the Soviet espionage effort to obtain scientific, industrial and technical information from the West.

[5] In February 1982, after heavy drinking caused by a cooling-off period imposed by the French, who were fearful of his discovery through too much contact, Vetrov stabbed his mistress during an argument in his car (she survived).

The information which Vetrov provided (400 names[13]) enabled the western countries to expel nearly 150 Soviet technology[14] spies around the world, including the 47 mentioned above, most of whom were from Line X.

[15] Vetrov also provided information hinting at a Polish coup d'état (eventually found to be that by Wojciech Jaruzelski),[5] and alleging a link between the Soviet Union and the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.