General Ivan Tretyak was interviewed by a writer for LITERATURNAYA GAZETA (Literary Gazette magazine) in November, 1990. Tretyak was the Soviet Deputy Minister of Defense as well as being the Commander in Chief of the Air Defense Forces and General of the Army. He said that during the events reported by Maltsev one UFO had been photographed and optical and thermal signals had been detected by the aircraft pilot. However, the aircraft radar did not detect the object.