U.S. FEARS SOVIET ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP OR KILL NOSSENKO

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP75-00149R000100020021-9
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
November 11, 2016
Document Release Date: 
October 29, 1998
Sequence Number: 
21
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
March 2, 1964
Content Type: 
NSPR
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PDF icon CIA-RDP75-00149R000100020021-9.pdf90.25 KB
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FOIAb3b waUxxrrToJanitized - Approved F `w r"CIt.1:IL? MAR 2 1964 U0 a ear ~ ~ A le mwut to 2di aD Q ' Kill N( ssenko Now that a ran1.'ing staff member of Ruv- sia's secret ? police has asked political asylum in this country, U. S. intelligence authorities fear that Soviet security police in the United States may be under orders to kidnap or kill Red defector Yuri 1. Nossenko. By NICOLAS RIVERO Yuri Ivanovich Nossenkoa member of the Soviet delegation to the Geneva disar- mament conference who defected and re- quested U.S. asylum last month, seems to be far more important than a regular KGB (Soviet Russia's State Security Committee or secret police) member assigned to spy on his own disarmament mission, or on the Western delegation, or on both. Nossenko is now in the United States under the "protective custody" of the Cen- tral Intelligence Agency and is perhaps the best protected man in this country today. It is feared by U.S. Intelligence officials that Soviet counter-espionage agents are under orders to kidnap Nossenko if possi- ble and to kill him, if not. If they should succeed in killing him, it would not be the first time they have murdered a Soviet de- fector in the United States in order to pro- tect their network of more than 1,000 mili- tary, scientific and industrial spies in this country. ' This figure. is based on an esti- mate made recently by FBI director J. Ed- gar Hoover, who in turn based his esti- mate on reports made by previous defectors. In 1941, Gen. Walter Krivitsky, a former Red Army Intelligence chief whose break with Stalin in 1937 and subsequent revela- tions had caused word-wide sensation, was found murdered in a Washington hotel. . Another case of KGB's special murder unit operations in the United States was the strange "accident" on a U.S. turnpike MIM Iayhanen, a former KGB liteuten- In the spring of 1957 Col. Hayhanen was ordered back to Moscow from a for- eign assignment. He suspected he would be liquidated on his return home. Instead of flying to the Soviet Union he went to Paris, where he contacted the American Embassy and asked for asylum. Rushed to the United States, Hayhanen became a counter-espionage agent for the CIA. He located -in New York the' studio of Russian master spy Rudolph Ivano'vich Abel who was the most important Soviet spy caught in- the United States to date. Abel was running a photographer's studio in Brooklyn under the alias of Emil R. Gold- fus. It was in that studio that Abel proc- essed secret documents 'by photographing them and reducing the papers to the size of a pin head-a process called micro-spotting. The importance that Moscow attached to his work may be judged by the fact that he IRATE BOSS of defector Yuri Nossenko is understandably upset over recent events. Semyon K. Tsarapkin, head of the Soviet delegation to the Geneva disarmament con- ference, charged that Switzerland permitted "foreign agents" to engineer the disappear- ance of Nossenko. Nossenko is under wraps in political asylum in Washington. as exchanged for the American U-2 pilot,, rancis Gary Powers. U.S. officials have refused to release de-; ails of the Nossenko defection. He was escribed as a ranking staff member of the GB. But the circumstances of his disap- earance were left vague. American offi- ials also declined to say how high up Mr. ossenko was in the KGB apparatus and; by he defected. i All these facts may never be published.' I t ften defectors to the West from the Soviet pion are- thoughtful people who are fed. p with the dreary processes of the police ate. FOIAb3b CPYRGHT CPYRGHT Cont1nuecl Sanitized - Approved Flor Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R00100020021-9 .. c