TASS Is Authorized to Declare... (Season 1)

TASS Is Authorized to Declare (1984) is a Soviet-era espionage series you can watch online on iFILM. Based on a novel by Yulian Semyonov — who also created the legendary spy Stirlitz — the show sets Soviet counterintelligence against the CIA at the height of Cold War tension.

The CIA is engineering a coup in a pro-Soviet African state. At the same time, a mole operates deep inside Moscow. Soviet intelligence runs two parallel operations: dismantling the African plot from abroad while quietly closing in on the agent hiding at home. The cast brings together Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Yuri Solomin, Vakhtang Kikabidze, and Ivar Kalnins — an ensemble Soviet television rarely concentrated in a single production. Directed by Vladimir Fokin.

Released in 1984, the series remains a benchmark of the genre: no wasted scenes, the bureaucratic machinery of both sides rendered with precision, and a pace that never overstates the stakes. Watch TASS Is Authorized to Declare online on iFILM.