MISSING SOVIET CITIZEN SEEKS ASYLUM IN U.S.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030051-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: August 28, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-005
i-TICX:E iJ WASHINGTON POST
,. . ~3
ON 28 August 1982
Missing Soviet GitizeneekA
Asylum in U.S.
By Jackson Diehl
W..nmso.a Poi roit~n e.e.ic.
SAO PAULO, Brazil, Aug. 27-J
.Soviet citizen whose disappearance
in Brazil two weeks ago triggered a
spate of .rumors of spying and mur?
'der- has requested asylum in the
United _. States, the Brazilian and
U.S. governments announced today.
Sevim Gueraibekov, 32, a dark
haired, outgoing man attached to a
delegation of 48 Soviet political aci-
entista in Brazil for a , conference,
vanished from the No Copa Hotel in
No de Janiero nearly two weeks ago,
one. day before his group was to re-;
turn to Moscow. -
(U.S. Embassy spokesman ? Don;
Hanger said in Brasilia that Guarai-
bekov had requested U.S. asylum
and was temporarily . staying in at
third country, The Associated Press.
an Wash* ton, State Depart-
went spokesman Joe Reap said'
Gueraibekoy's application will "be:.
processed in accordance with U.S.'
law and policy governing the admis-
sion to-this country of refuge' He
declined to elaborate ~... .
[A spokesman at the Soviet con- .
sulate in No said there was no of-..'
The mystery was `deepened by the
figure of Gueraibekov, who was de-
acribedby the Soviets only as a tour-
ist accompanying the, political seen-`
:'flats. - ~ _.
quoted diplomatic sources in .Brazil.
as saying he may have been a secu-
rity officer assigned to watch the
Soviet -participants in the confer
ence. _ ..
. At the Rio Cope Hotel, dressed in
shorts arkd holiday shirts, Gueraibe-
kov flirted with -waitresses in the
restaurant-presenting one with a
gift of caviar-and lauded Rio and
its 'beaches to the hotel manager. .
? But -the manager later said to the
press that "he looked very tired as if
he had not slept at night:"
When Gueraibekov disappeared,
diplomats and journalists quickkly.
assumed that he had taken refuge in
OV ` ... the US Consulate in Rio, and-a red
... muigpeatcuioe int~3gned >3mZil. port' appeared saying .that he had! .
notch'to number seven on the Bra -been spotted entering the door. .
zuian nest-saner list But that was before Brazilian po-
But the most 'uncomfortable pub-. lice found the body of a man appar-
lic actors ink the drama were. U.S. , _. ently beaten and strangled in the.
diplomats here, who repeatedly re suburb of Santa Cruz, and they were
fused to clear up at least part of the unable -;.to :match this fingerprints
mystery by confirming or: denying with those of any Brazilian citizen ins
that the Soviet had sought. U.S. my- the state.
B
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in
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razi
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ors conce
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ficial worde case from the So- _
ny silence encouraged a" that " the body could be Gueraibe-,
viet llanbaesy,.AP.reportedj .? plethora of?-reportin-diplomatic and, kov's, and the Rio Cope Hotel man=
Guerai`bekov's disappearance media circles. Several stories main- ?. agar announced after seeing the
prompted a Burry of speculation in tamed that the missing Soviet was corpse that he was "90 percent sure":
Braril'8 ...newly unrestricted...-PreSS, whisked ,out of the country by U.S. . it was the 'mysterious Soviet tourist..'
and the- rumors were complicated officials, possibly without the knowl- Just - as the disappearance ap-'
when a body resembling Gueraibe. edge of Brazilian authorities. Anoth- peered to have become a political
kov's was found with Marks of atran- er account this. week said that assassination story, though, . a Rio,
gulation near a polluted canal in an ? Gueraiibekov. was' spotted meeting --Copa waitress arrived to view the!
industrial dist:ic 45 miles from Rio. with U.S. officials : but disappeared body and announced to excited re-:
As Brazilian witnesses-delivered , before asylum could be arranged. porters outside that it was definitely
opposing judgments on whether the. "In reality, the traditional roles of . not Gueraibekov. .
body was Gueraibekov's, Brazilian the-two superpowers seem to have "He adored the beach and the'
police fumed and commentators been reversed, commented the news night life. of Rio, and so I think be
rushed to the archives of spy lore for magazine, Veja this week. "While the wanted to escape the Iron Curtain,":
comparison. Martin Cruz Smith's . Soviets go out on the streets, make she announced.
"Gorky Park," the thriller of Soviet statements, receive the press and
spies and unidentified bodies, rose a answer1questions, the-American side
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030051-0