I don't know why this is so underrated here. In my opinion it is one of the best political detective stories produced in Soviet Union. Yes, it was shot during Cold War and it is sure permeated with the ideology of fight between two superpowers of this time but nevertheless all this can not overshadow plentiful merits of this mini -- elaborated plot, attentive and careful direction, superb music by Eduard Artemyev. And another thing which strikes me every time i watch it -- every, literally every actor and actress hits directly here, there is no at least one bad performance!!! Director manages to create suspension, and he does this not worse than Sidney Pollack in The tree days of Condor. The plot is very intriguing and really absorbing. I want to point out also to another aspect of the movie -- despite the time set in it soviet movie makers tried to depict Americans as very worthy enemies -- American agents of CIA presented here with big respect which means that soviet respected themselves. And this goes in contrast to most of Hollywood production shot during the Cold War where soviets were depicted simply as morons. It is an excellent movie, and i rate it 9