CHRISTIAN STIRRINGS TURNED KGB SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300036-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: June 15, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300036-3
THE "WASHINGTON TIMES
15 June 1983 F_
Christian stirrings turned
KGB spy
Levchenko draws on a long filter cigarette and waits
By Eowaro Neiian to frame his reply. He doesn't particularly like or dis-
w&SMMIGT0KTIMESSTA F { like the question. He has heard it before. He under-
stands that it mast be asked because of the virtual
Stanislav Alexandrovich Levchenko is The Spy Who 1believability.of-the defection of a high-ranking KGB
Knew. Too lrloch He knew too touch about his own heart I -officer.
and the rest of the world to continue being an excellent ?.l have taken numerous polygraph tests and caused
operative in Japan for the-1'GB, the Soviet Union's the KGB and the Soviet Union so much trouble that
agency of terror and espionage. everyone is satisfied I am clean:' Levchenko said.
Levchenko said Christian stirrings from his youth 1 The Soviet Union sentenced him to death in absentia
were partly responsible for his rejection of-the Soviet 1981, and he left behind his beautiful wife, Natalia,
system. As a young man, after serving in-the-GRU, _.and his 10-year-old son when he defected. He is not
Levchenko had been forced to join the KGB. In despair nervous moving about Washington
at the cynicism there, he sought religion to find some and Los Angeles but acknowledges
hope. Christian ethics and morality seemed to be sound that he could be an assassination
guideposts for behavior. target for a vengeful Moscow. STAT
However. his work put him in conflict with his faith. Why is Japan so lenient in pros
so he chose to immerse himself in his work to avoid the Wh`,
the agents whom
and then whom
inner turmoil. Even in Japan, he continued to attend a ecuting some of
Russian Orthodox church whenever he could. Levchenko e developed otsand the Jap-
faced i Finally. unable to stand the KGB any longer, and Lerh in o in an effort was sgoing how hen
with the prospect of returning to the Soviet gerc esd public a what
spy case to the court,
L pion. Levchenko detected on a --drizzly October eve-, To bring
especially in Japan, you've got to
ring in 1979. walking into the American armed forces' have a lot of documented evidence,
Sanno Hotel in Tokyo's Akasaka district and an- I because they don't have a strong
pouncing to a startled U.S. Navy officer that he was espionage law," Levchenko said.
seeking political asylum. i "They can prosecute people in
Recently, in tailored bush jacket 'and. looking more, espionage cases for two reasons:
like a sassy American foreign correspondent than an First, they have a government
ex-major in the KGB, Levchenko told editors of The employees law with a statute of
Washington Times that Japan was and is a prime target limitations of three years. The sec
for Soviet espionage. and law is a foreign exchange law.
"Japan is a cow for them which they try to milk The statute of limitations is also
because it is No. 2 GNP-wise in the Free World:' Lev- three vears. Most of these cases are
chenko said. 3V_, four or five years old. So, lack
"Some analysts say that if everything goes as it is of material evidence and statutes of
going now in the Japaneseeconomy, by the year 2000, . limitations - these are the main
probably, GNP-wise, it will be No. 1, Japan has the reasons. The editor-in-chief of San-
technical knowledge and high potential.wwith people kei Shimbun, which is a very solid,
who are talented and skillful. So the Soviets want the I respectable conservative newspa-
Japaneseproduct." per - in Japan it's No. 5, but in
Levchenko said that since Japan has no espionage Japan No. 5 means 3.5 million
copies a day - resigned. he had to
law and scant controls on passing intelligence, getting 1, go because he was too close to the
secrets from Japanese industry and government is an KGB. The Japanese mass media
easy touch: like taking sushi from a baby. take this very seriously"
Levchenko is a sawed-off James Bond (Sean Con- How about the response of the
nery) look-alike who speaks English with an American American press%
twang that has corrupted the proper "British" English "The American mass media was,
he learned in Moscow. as you know. silent for six months:'
Reporters are as cynical as spies. So the inevitable Levchenko said. "Tllpt's a very
question: "How do we know, Mr. Levchenko, that. 'ou unusual thing. It was a very big
are not still a Soviet agent, not-a deep plant for the thing in Japan, but no word in the
KGB?" American mass media, probably
because it was too complicated a
story.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300036-3