EMIGRE TIES RUSSIAN TO POPE CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110014-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: October 13, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110014-6
ARTICL. APPEARED
ON PAGE 4_3
NEW YORK TIMES
13 October 198+
FMWe Ties Russian to Pope Case
PARIS, Oct. 12 (Reuters) - An' as-
sociate of a Soviet journalist who re-
turned to Moscow last month asserts
that the man, Oleg G. Bitov, was forci-
bly taken back by K.G.B. men because
bf fears that he would give evidence to
,talian officials investigating the at-
tempted assassination of Pope John
Paul II.
The friend, Anatoly Gladilin, a Rus-
-sian emigre writer, wrote in an analy-
sis of the case in Le Monde that Mr.
Bitov had agreed to give written testi-
mony in the case against a Bulgarian
suspect, Sergei .. Ivanov Antonov,
shortly before Mr. Bitov vanished from
Britain in August.
Mr. Bitov, a senior journalist for the
weekly Literaturnaya Gazeta, was
thought to have defected at the Venice
Film Festival'in September 1983 and to
have been given asylum in Britain.
,- He reappeared in Moscow last month
and asserted at a news conference teat
he had not defected but had been kid-
happed and tortured by British agents.
r- Mr. Gladilin wrote: "I spent many
hours alone with Bitov; I was the last to
see him in London. I spent the evening.
of Aug. 15 with him. We spoke by tele-
phone on the 16th and agreed to meet on
the 17th. But on the 17th, Bitov had dis-
appeared-"Believe me, Bitov did not at all look
like someone who was planning to re-
turn to the Soviet Union. I am sure he
was kidnapped in London and held his
press conference in Moscow under the
dictation of the K.G.B.'" --
Mr. Gladilin said Mr. Bitov had trav-
eled to Italy to collect material for ani-
cles implicating the Central Intelli_
gene Agen~c in the shooting of the
Poe v Mehrnet AELAgca.a Turk, on
gay 13, 198E
Mr. Gladilin wrote that after Mr.
Bitov's defection to Britain the K.G.B.
became increasingly worried that he'
would appear as a witness at the trial of
Mr. Antonov, a Bulgarian airline offi-
cial implicated by Mr. Agca in the plot.
`Invited to Testify' .
He added: "I know that the K.G.B.'s
fears were well founded. Bitov was in- ;
vited to testify.. It was not the British
who asked him, and I do not know ex-
actly who did."
"Bitov refused to go to Italy and give
evidence, knowing that the K.G.B.
would not forgive him. But he agreed to
give a written deposition which could
be read at a closed court session."
Mr. Gladilin said that Mr. Bitov was
sent a dossier on the Antonov case but
that his fate was sealed by the fact that
the K.G.B. found.out.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110014-6