Furious at the breakout success of the HBO series Chernobyl, Russia is planning to make its own series portraying the nuclear disaster as the work of an American CIA operative.

Russian television broadcaster NTV announced that it had commissioned the series, and principal photography has already begun in Belarus under director Alexei Muradov.

In response to the HBO series' depiction of Soviet bureaucrats bungling the response both during and after the 1986 nuclear accident in the Ukrainian SSR, the Russian version plans to tell the tale of a heroic KGB agent trying to thwart a supposed CIA sabotage plot.

A scene from the HBO series Chernobyl depicts containment efforts after the 1986 disaster. Furious at the American TV show, Russia is making its own series blaming the CIA

'One theory holds that Americans had infiltrated the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and many historians do not deny that, on the day of the explosion, an agent of the enemy's intelligence services was present at the station,' Muradov explained to the Moscow Times.

The Chernobyl disaster occurred during a failed safety test of the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and there is no credible evidence to suggest that the accident was part of a CIA plot.

The HBO miniseries covering the disaster finished its five-episode run on June 3, and as of Thursday had the highest audience ranking on IMDb, with 9.6 out of 10 stars - beating even such mega-hit series as Breaking Bad and Game Of Thrones.

The HBO series (above) depicted inept Soviet bureaucrats badly bungling the response to the disaster. The Russian show will portray a CIA operative sabotaging the nuclear plant

Surprisingly, the series was generally well received by regular viewers in Russia as well, where it aired on Amediateka.

On KinoPoisk, the local analog of IMDB, the HBO series has an average rating is 9.1.

NTV is a top free-to-air network, owned by Gazprom Media, the media arm of Russian natural gas giant Gazprom.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Russian series was partially financed by the culture ministry, which provided 30 million rubles ($460,000).

The total budget has not been made public and an expected air date has not yet been released.