KGB AGENT RETURNS TO SOVIET FOLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670021-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: November 5, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670021-4
ARTICLE APPEARED BOSTON GLOBE
'AGE 5 November 1985
____ _
KGB agent
returns to
$oviet fold
y Michael J. Sniffen
ssociated Press
WASHINGTON Vitaly Yurchenko, a high-level
Soviet KGB officer who was reported by the State De-
partment to have defected to the United States.
turned up at the Soviet Embassy yesterday and
claimed that he had been drugged, kidnapped and of-
fered $1 million to cooperate with the CIA.
The State Department said Yurchenko's charges
were "completely false." One senator called his story
"baloney" and said CIA officials weren't sure Yur-
chenko was acting voluntarily when he made his alle-
gations during an extraordinary press conference at
the embassy.
The State Department said Yurchenko would not
be permitted to leave the United States until he pro.
vides assurances that a decision to return to the Sovi
et Union is "genuinely of his own choosing.
Yurchenko repeatedly described his oLdeal as
"state-sponsored terrorism" and told of being
drugged before meeting with CIA director William Ca-
sey.
Yurchenko denied that he knowingly gave US off' ,-
cials any Soviet secrets.. He said he did not know who
abducted him, but he discussed in detail what he sal
were CIA efforts to sign him to a lucrative lifetirr
contract in return for working with US intelligence.
"I was kept in isolation and forced to take so
drugs and denied the opportunity to get in touch wit
official Soviet representatives." Yurchenko charged.
A Soviet official who introduced Yurchenko said
the embassy's charge d'affaires was lodging a strong
Drotest with the State Department.
Yurchenko said that on Satur-
day, due to "a momentary. lapse"
in his supervision, he was able to
'break out to freedom" and go to
he embassy in the northwest sec-
ion of Washington. But Sen. Da
id Durenberr (R-Minn.), chair-
an of the senate Intelligence
Committee, said Yurchenko sim-
ply went out to dinner Saturday
night and disappeared.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the.
panel's vice chairman, told report-
ers that Yurchenko either was try-
ing to get back in the good graces
of the Soviet Union "or he was a
double agent all along."
Was he a Soviet plant, sent in
to cause an intelligence uproar? "I
think that's highly unlikely but
not to be dismissed," said Sen.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.),
former vice chairman of the panel.
Yurchenko, 50, had been
thought to be one of the highest-
rariking Soviet officials to defect
in recent years. He was described
as the No. 5 man in the Soviet in-
telligence service at the time he de-
fected In Rome in early August.
"Mr. Yurchenko was specifical-
ly responsible for the direction of
KGB intelligence operations in the
US and Canada," the State De-
partment said on Oct. 11.
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman said last night
that Yurchenko "defected of his
own volition to the American Em-
bassy in Rome, Italy."
"At no time was Mr. Yur-
chenko held or coerced by improp-
er, illegal, or unethical means. It is
Mr. Yurchenko's right to return to
the Soviet Union once the United
State government is. in fact, as-
sured that this action is genuinely
of his own choosing," Redman
said.
Yurchenko said. "At the mo-
ment my only wish is to return as
soon as possible to my country,
my family, my kin and my
friends" in the Soviet Union.
Durenberger told reporters on
Capitol Hill that "the CIA is sur-
prised at this as anyone else... .
Nobody can have a clear opinion
might now as to why he's doing
CIA spokeswoman Patti Volz
aid the agency would have no
omment, but Durenberger called
'urchenko's claim about being
drugged "a lot of baloney."
"At no time have any of the
things he alleged happened to him
actually happened to him." Dur-
enberger said.
Earlier yesterday, Dave Holli-
day, a spokesman for the Senate
Intelligence Committee, said he
had been told by the CIA that Yur-
chenko had redefected to the Sovi-
et Union, but that wasn't the sto-
ry Yurchenko told:
? "On a business trip to Italy
yin August] I was forcibly abduct-
ed in Rome." he said. He did not
say by whom but later he talked
about conversations he held with
CIA officials.
? Of his alleged meeting with
Casey, Yurchenko said, "Later I
have only vague recollections of
the conversation but it was a gen-
eral conversation of vague policy
issues regarding the summit, the
things they usually write about in
the newspapers."
? He would not confirm that he
worked for the KGB. "I know I'm
not going to make any comments
about spying business," he said.
? He would not give details of
his alleged escape, saying only, "I
am very proud that I managed to
escape, but I won't tell you how." STAT
Early in the news conference,
which lasted almost an hour, Yur-
chenko went out of his way to
tweak the CIA. describing a con-
versation he said he held with a
"Mr. Gerber," whom he identified
as chief of the CIA's Soviet depart-
ment.
He said Gerber told him there
were requests to interview Yur-
chenko from American journal-
ists. Then Yurchenko said at the
press conference at the Soviet Em-
bassy: "I follow my promise now."
He said reporters could get confir-
mation of that anecdote from
Gerber himself except "I'm sure
he's very busy now."
While alleging he was a victim
of torture, Yurchenko offered few
specifics.
Yurchenko said,he was asked
to cooperate and in return was of-
fered $1 million tax-free, plus sala-
ry and benefits totaling $180,000
a year for the rest of his life. The
benefits, he said, were to include
free medical care and furniture.
Yurchenko said he was held in
a, safe house out Route 17, 22
miles from Fredericksburg, Va.
Yurchenko, describing what he
referred to as "three horrible
months for me," made an opening
statement in halting English but
then answered questions from the
hastily assembled reporters in
Russian and had his remarks
translated through an interpreter.
Yurchenko said that to his
knowledge he had not cooperated
with American authorities.
"In the period when I was con-
scious and in control of my behav-
ior, I did not pass any secret infor-
mation," he said. "... When I was
drugged ... I don't know what I
was doing or saying. ... I was
threatened."
cootmued
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He said his captors hoped to
persuade him that he had given
secret information to them.
They showed him papers
which were written in my hand"
and said "everyone thinks you are
a traitor." he said.
Extensive interrogation
"They were trying to say every-
body will believe what they were
saying. ... They. I think, were
hoping I eventually will start to
believe that I had indeed passed
some information of a secret na-
ture."
Yurchenko had been undergo-
ing extensive interrogation by the
CIA at an undisclosed location, US
officials had said.
Acting on his information, US
authorities said they learned that
Edward L. Howard. a former CIA
employee, sold intelligence secrets
to the Soviet Union. Howard, a 33-
year-old economic analyst for the
New Mexico Legislature, vanished
in early October while under FBI
surveillance and was last reported
to be in Helsinki. Finland.
US government sources said
Yurchenko identified another
American who had been working
for the KGB, but no arrests have
yet resulted from Yurchenko's in-
formation.
Yurchenko said that US offi-
cials brought him newspapers
with accounts of his telling US au-
thorities about Howard.
"They brought these to me and
were looking at me like a zoo ani-
mal. They were thinking I'd be
shocked at the secrets I'd dis-
closed." he said. But he said, "I
heard the name of Howard for the
first time from the newspapers."
US sources had said that Yur-
chenko did not know Howard's
real name but had only been able
to describe him to them by his
code name Robert and by details
of his life. Those details were
enough'to lead them to Howard,
the sources said.
a
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670021-4