SOVIET SAYS'DEFECTION' WAS KIDNAPING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580018-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: November 5, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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WASH INGTON POST
ti/ ARTICLE APPEARE1* 5 November 1985
ON
Soviet
-
Soviet Says 'Defection' Was Kidnaping
Yurchenko Claims He Escaped CIA, Asks Return Home: U.S. Denies Charge
66 By Patrick E. Tyler and Bob Woodward
a propaganda victory two weeks before Presi- has willingly cooperated with both
Washington Post Staff Wotan
showed pleasure at what they seemed to view as
dent Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorba- fhe Central Intelligence Agency and
Vitaly Yurchenko, a senior official of the So- chev are to meet in Geneva for their first sum- tl;d FBI in providing information
viet KGB hailed as the most important defector mit. Yurchenko lost no opportunity to assail the 3bout Soviet intelligence activities
to the West in years, appeared at the Soviet res- United States, the CIA and the people who de- throughout the world."
idential compound in Washington last night to briefed him here. Encouraged by a question from : .Yurchehko refused to discuss his
declare that he had not defected, but rather was a Soviet journalist, he compared his abduction reported status as a high-ranking
kidnaped three months ago in Rome, drugged and treatment to an act of "state-sponsored ter- KGB officer, but said he had been a
and held in forced isolation by the Central Intel- rorism.". Security officer" in the Soviet Em-
ligence Agency on an estate near Fredericks- Word of Yurchenko's news conference was 12issy here during the 1970s. "I am
burg, Va. first spread yesterday afternoon by Soviet Em- not going to make any comments
Reagan administration officials immediately bassy officials, who told reporters about spying business," he said.
disputed Yurchenko's account, saying he came to at' about 3 p.m. that the Reagan Last month the State Department
the United States voluntarily and, after providing administration still did not know it identified Yurchenko as the former
important information on KGB operations to his was about to happen. Late in the deputy chief of North American spy .
CIA debriefers, apparently developed second afternoon, a Soviet diplomat deliv- operations in the KGB's First Chief
thoughts, walked out of his safe-house quarters ered a formal protest to the State Directorate. He had previously
and found his way to the Soviet Embassy Satur- Department complaining of "the been chief of worldwide counterin-
day night. criminal act committed against V.S. telligence.
Sen. David F. Durenberger (R-Minn.), chair- Yurchenko," and asked that he be :, Yurchenko would not provide
man of the Senate Select Committee on Intelli- speedily returned to the Soviet details of his escape, but did de-
gence, told reporters that Yurchenko was sched- Union scribe his captivity at a CIA safe
uled to come to dinner at the CIA Saturday : Yesterday's sequence of house on an estate near Fredericks-
night, but "never showed up." events?which seemed more suited burg.
A senior intelligence official said last night of tb: a spy novel than to real life?cul- : On many other details he was
Yurchenko's claim that he was kidnaped, "It's all !Vitiated a week of highly emotional hazy, describing himself as in a
a lie. . . . He defected and grew unhappy or it defection politics set off by a Soviet !log" when he met one night for
was a setup all along, but at this point we doubt sailor in New Orleans, a Soviet sol- dinner at CIA headquarters in
it." tiler in Afghanistan and yesterday Langley with CIA Director William
A senior intelligence source said last night tiy. Yurchenko. 1. Casey. Yurchenko said he had the
that Yurchenko had passed a series of lie detec- :1The one-hour news conference in impression that his handlers were
tor tests to establish his credibility as a defector. iphich Yurchenko spoke alternately !?trying to deceive the government,
State Department spokesman Charles Red- Russian and English left many including Mr. Casey" into thinking
man said last night, "At no time was Mr. Yur- ildy questions unanswered. He pro- he was a willing defector, and he
chenko held or coerced by improper, illegal or ,
vided little detail about his "abduc-
unethical means. It is Mr. Yurchenko's right to don," saying only: "I was forcibly claimed that they drugged him be-
abducted in Rome by some un- fore that meeting. "I have only
return to the Soviet Union once the United
vague recollections of the conver-
States government is, in fact, assured that this known persons. Unconscious, I was sation," he said, ''but it was a kind of
action is genuinely of his own choosing." A de-
beought from Italy to the U.S.A.
partment official added that U.S. officials wanted
More I was kept in isolation, forced general conversation of big policy
issues regarding the summit, things
to interview Yurchenko on "American soil" be,
to-. take some drugs and denied the which they usually write about in
fore he is allowed to leave the country. aossibility to get in touch with of- the newspapers." Casey, Yurchenko
Yurchenko, 49, said last night that he still has
ficial Soviet representatives . . . ." added, "was evading effectual con-
the Soviet diplomatic passport he was carrying
He called his debriefing by the CIA versation about my case, and rather
when he traveled to Rome in July, and hopes to
'hese three horrible months." He was dealing with generalities."
return as soon as possible to the Soviet Union to
ieferred to his CIA debriefers? When asked if his defection and
see his wife and son, 16.
tWo of whom he named?as "tor- escape were an elaborate "sting"
An intelligence source said last night that ti Yur-
chenko had several personal reasons that might
'? A State Department official "no comment," but added, waving
have led him to reconsider his defection, includ- .
countered, "He requested asylum in his hands in the air for emphasis, "I
ing a "girlfriend" in the Soviet Union.
Nervous and clearly under strain, Yurchenko the U.S. and signed a statement to know your side now, better than
appeared at an extraordinary news conference that effect, and asylum was grant- reading 1,000 books."
ed... Since his arrival in the United From his account, Yurchenko
before scores of U.S. and Soviet reporters as
tates on Aug. 2, Mr. Yurchenko said that his debriefing had "re-
well as dozens of Soviet Embassy personnel who 5
C,ontinued
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laxed" in recent weeks and that CIA
officials had tried to get his signa-
ture on a contract that would pay
him a Si million down payment and
$62,500 a year?with an inflation
adjustment?to live in secrecy and
perform consulting services for
U.S. intelligence. The consulting
deal also included $48,000 worth of
furniture from the safe house, he
said.
Snch an arrangement would be
consistent with what is known
about how the CIA treats Soviet
defectors. Arkady Shevchenko, for
example?the deputy secretary
general of the United Nations who
defected in the mid-1970s?re-
ceived a lifetime annual stipend of
$60,000 a year.
Yurchenko claimed he was
threatened by his debriefers and
tempted with the lucrative contract
to live as a secret consultant to the
CIA. "They told me, 'If you flee,
prison and death are waiting for
you. We'll send the KGB all the ma-
terial we got from you,' "he said.
Yurchenko may have been using
yesterday's news conference to try
to ease the usually harsh Soviet re-
taliations against families of de-
fectors, intelligence sources said.
Yet he did not play the role of a con-
ventional Soviet official. He ap-
peared eager to respond to report-
ers' questions, and more than once
ignored the guidance of Embassy
Minister Viktor Isakov, who sat
beside him. The other Soviet offi-
cials in the room appeared uneasy
when Yurchenko was pointedly
asked how he could have failed to
disclose Soviet state secrets during
three months of debriefing by U.S.
intelligence officials.
In reply, Yurchenko said emphat-
ically, "In the period when I was
conscious and controlled my behav-
ior, I did not pass any secret infor-
mation." But he added, "I did not
know what I was saying or doing
when I was drugged." Yurchenko
said his handlers "showed me doc-
uments which were written in my
hand" and said "they had recordings
of my conversations," but "never-
theless. I did not believe them."
In the course of the news confer-
ence, Yurchenko tried to disavow
the most important intelligence dis-
coveries that have been attributed
to him by U.S. intelligence officials.
The first involved a former offi-
cer of the CIA's clandestine service,
Edward Lee Howard, who the FBI
has said was a spy for the Soviet
Union. Howard joined the CIA in
1981, was trained to become a clan-
destine operative in Moscow, and
was fired in June 1983 for failing to
stop his occasional drug use.
In late September, Howard was
put under surveillance by the FBI
because of information provided by
Yurchenko, according to govern-
ment officials. But Howard escaped
before a warrant was obtained for
his arrest on espionage charges.
Information Howard provided to
the Soviets allegedly helped them
uncover a CIA "asset" in Mos-
cow?a Soviet aviation expert
named A.G. Tolkachev who had
been providing valuable information
on Soviet electronic weapons re-
search.
Tolkachev disappeared in early
June, and the Soviets subsequently
expelled a U.S. Embassy political
officer, Paul Stombaugh, whom
they accused of carrying on espi-
onage activities in Moscow. Stom-
baugh reportedly was Tolkachev's
case officer in the Soviet capital.
Asked about this yesterday, Yur-
chenko said, "The first time I rec-
ognized the name Howard" was
when his CIA handlers brought him
newspaper accounts of his alleged
spy role and disappearance. How-
ever, U.S. officials had previously
said that Yurchenko had known
Howard only by a code name, but
provided details about him that
helped the CIA and FBI to expose
him.
Yurchenko also claimed not to be
the source of the CIA's confirma-
tion of the death of Nicholas G.
Shadrin, a CIA double agent who
disappeared in Vienna in December
1975 on an evening he was to meet
KGB Officials. Just a week ago, act-
ing on Yurchenko's information, the
FBI sent two agents to the home of
Shadrin's widow to inform her that
her husband was dead. And last
week?also using Yurchenko's in-
formation, according to intelligence
sources?the State Department
called in the second-ranking official
of the Soviet Embassy here to read
him a formal protest. It accused the
Soviets of a "reprehensible" crime
in kidnaping and killing Shadrin, and
further accused the Soviets of lying
about the matter repeatedly since
Shadrin's disappearance.
"I don't know [if Shadrin is
dead[," Yurchenko shouted to re-
porters at the end of the news con-
ference.
Once, late in the news confer-
ence, Yurchenko paused, cleared
his throat, and when he looked up at
reporters, his eyes watered as he
apologized for his rambling state-
ments and his fatigue. He attributed
them to the ''helpless" months he
spent as a captive and many N ep-
less nights in which, he alleged, he
could not close the door to his bed-
room, which was guarded by what
he described as a ''fat, quiet and stu-
pid" security officer.
Several members of the congres-
sional intelligence oversight com-
mittees said last night that Yur-
chenko got "cold feet" after provid-
ing important information about the
KGB's worldwide operations.
"His debriefing information is for
the most part reliable," said Sen.
Durenberger. "The stuff that we
have been able to check, has
checked out."
Durenberger said he could not
explain the bizarre circumstances
that led to Yurchenko's return to
the Soviet camp. "He is a pro. He
knows whereof he speaks and the
information he has given us is all
valid information. So there's some-
thing else that doesn't click here.
Either this was a setup from the
beginning just to make us look bad
. . . , or the guy really is under
some substantial duress and thinks
that somehow he is feathering a
nest in Siberia or for himself . . .
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, (D-Vt.)
? vice chairman of the Senate panel,
said last night that he believed Yur-
chenko was either trying to get
back into the good graces of Soviet
officials to protect his family, "or he
was a double agent all along."
Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Maine),
a member of the Senate intelligence
panel, said last night that he and
two other senators expressed
doubts to high CIA officials about
whether Yurchenko was an authen-
tic defector.
"There was skepticism from the
beginning," Cohen said, "because
his defection seemed too pat, too
convenient. It raised a number of
red flags on the committee . . . .
We kept asking, 'Are you sure this
guy is real?' "
Yet at the same time, CIA offi-
cials treated the Yurchenko defec-
tion as the biggest intelligence coup
of the decade, one that would set
back Soviet intelligence for years to
come.
caltmued
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. Cohen said the intelligence com-
mittees got no notice that Yur-
chenko had returned to Soviet cus-
tody and doubted any charges that
lrugs were used in his debriefing.
He had to say that to save his
fanny," Cohen said of the drug al-
legations. "It's conceivable the guy
is unstable and had a change of
heart. It's plausible that he was act-
ing as a double from the beginning."
Some of Yurchenko's statements
did appear inconsistent. He alleged
that his CIA interrogators kept him
incommunicado and in isolation, but
he greeted one reporter's question
by exclaiming that he had received
.ieveral letters from the reporter.
Yurchenko said the reporter's let-
ters were forwarded to him by CIA
officials.
Pressed to explain how he had
gotten away from the CIA safe
house, Yurchenko offered this re-
ply: " . . . Well, I find myself in re-
ally tough situation. I have a 16-
year-old son and he has his prob-
lems with his studies and with his
behavior .... I used to tell him
that there can be no situation with
no way out. If you really think about
it you can always find a way out of
any situation . . . ."
tiff writer Caryle Murphy last
night located a house north of Fre-
dericksburg that may have been the
safe house where Yurchenko was
debriefed over the last three
months. Located in a subdivision
called Coventry, a name Yurchenko
mentioned twice in his news con-
ference. it is a large new home on a
large lot on a lake?also mentioned
by Yurchenko.
lOnly nine homes have been built
in the wooded subdivision. Two res-
idents said last night that one of the
houses had been rented this sum-
mer by its owners to a lawyer who
said he did not want to live there
but wanted to use it for "his corpo-
ration." Reached late last night, the
owner of that house declined to dis-
cuss the matter. The house seemed
empty, and no one answered the
doorbell.
SY DUDLEY M IIROONS?TNE waseeisTne posr
Yurchenko appears at news conference in Soviet residential compound here.
At news conference yesterday are, from left, interpreter Vitaly Churkin, Vitaly Yurchenko, Soviet Embassy er MOO,/ M BROOMS - va,..o4c,rop4
Continued
official Viktor Isakov and Vladimir Kulagin.
Staff writers George C. Wilson,
Michael Weisskopf and John M
Goshko and staff researcher James
Schwartz contributed to this report.
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THE STRANGE ODYSSEY OF VITALY YURCHENKO
JUNE
Early Juni?The spy saga
begins with the secret
arrest in Moscow of A.G.
Tolkachev, an employe of a
Moscow aeronautical
institute who long ago was
CIA "asset" providing
valuable information to the
U.S. Tolkachev was
apparently put under KGB
surveillance oecause of
information provided the
Soviets by Edward Lee
Howard, a disaffected
former CIA employe who
was trained to be
Tolkachev's secret handler
in Moscow but who was
fired from the agency
before he took up that
post.
June 14?Ely following
Tolkachev. the KGB
apparently catches him in
the act of passing secrets
to Paul Stombaugh, a
diplomat in the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow. The
Soviets announce that they
have caught Stombaugh
in the act" of espionage
and expel him from the
,Soviet Union.
JULY
July 24--Vitaly
Yurchenko, deputy chief of
the KGB directorate that
_supervises all spy
VITALY `1U?R-CMENKO
operations in the United
States and a former first
secretary of the Soviet
Embassy in Washington
from 1975 to 1980,
arrives in Rome on an
Aeroflot night. His stated
mission is to prepare
security for Soviet
scientists attending a
conference on nuclear war
later that month in Erice,
Sicily.
End of July?Yurchenko,
walking with Soviet
colleagues, tells them he
wants to visit the Vatican
museums, and disappears
The Soviet government
asks Italian authorities to
investigate his
whereabouts.
AUGUST
Eat* August?Italian
newspapers report
Yurchenko has defected to
West.
SEPTEUISLIA
Mid-September?
Yurchenko allegedly
provides CIA information
leading to the identification
of Howard as a Soviet spy
who betrayed Toikachev to
the KGB.
The FBI and Justice
Department prepare a
lengthy, detailed affidavit
on Howard's espionage
activities, based on
information from their
debriefing of vurchenko
and confirmed by a
subsequent FBI
investigation Tne affidavit
is tiled under seal in U.S.
District Court in
Albuquerque, N M , where
Howard is living
Sept. 21?After
Yurchenko names Howard,
the FBI begins surveillance
of Howard's home. Howard
Sept. 25?Ralph De
Toledano, in The
Washington Times, carries
the first report in an
American newspaper of
Yurchenko's apparent
defection. He says
Yurchenko defected in
Rome on July 24 and "is
now in CIA hands."
OCTOBER
Oct. 211?NBC reports that
Yurchenko cleared up a
decade-old mystery by
explaining that Nicholas G.
Shadrin, an American
double agent who
disappeared in December
1975 in Vienna, was
accidentally and fatally
chloroformed while
struggling in a car with
Soviet agents.
Newsweek, in its Nov. 4
edition, reports that
William J. Casey, director
of the CIA, had personally
met Yurchenko.
NOVEMBER
Nov. 4?Yurchenko,
flanked by Soviet officials,
says at a news conference
that he was kidnaped by
CIA agents, drugged and
held in isolation, finally
escaping from a house in
Fredericksburg, Va., Nov. 2
while being watched by six
CIA agents. He says he
wants to return to the
Soviet Union, his wife and
16-year-old son as soon as
possible.
TOE WASMINGTCN Posr
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