POLITE WAR: SOVIET SPIES IN OUR MIDST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100170020-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: June 19, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100170020-2
STAT
L I I CI$ AFi _
PAS
Polite Pear:
SoNiet Spies
In Our Midst
By Caryle Murphy
and Alison Muscatine
washth& oo Poet .rrWe~t~sy
Everyweekday morning 1.dis
'tinguished-looking man inta 'con: .
-servative-suit and .tie leaves.-.his .
Northwest Washington : apart=
anent and drives his blue Olds-
mQbile 98'through the-morning
rush hour to _his . office- three
blocks from the White House.
Although secrecy is an impor-
tant part of the man's business;
there is much that the FBI can
tell you about him. Arriving at
the office by 8:30 a.m., he sel-
dom leaves before 10 at night
and often checks in on weekends
and holidays to review the stacks
of paper that accumulate on his
desk. He shuns night life and so-
cial activity, and keeps a small
circle of trusted friends.
The reason for the FBI's in-
terest in Stanislav A. Androssov
is simple: He is a Soviet spy.
According to the FBI, Andros-
sov, 53, is resident chief of the
Soviet Committee for 'State Se-
curity, or KGB, directing the co-
vert and not-so-covert intelli-
gence-gathering activities of
scores of agents in the United
States. Since arriving here last
year, he has become a central fig-
ure in. the Soviet Union's at-
tempt to obtain political, mili-
tary and technological secrets
19 June 1983
from the U.S. Asked about his activities as he entered the Soviet Embassy
on 16th Street last week, Androssov responded politely, "It is not in the
interest of improving our relations to speak about those things," and pro-
duced a business card that described his position as a counselor at the em-
bassy. He referred to himself and his colleagues as "we diplomats," and
said that in more than 30 years in the diplomatic service "this is the first
time I'm getting so much-attention from the FBL I don't understand it."
In recent months allegations of increased Soviet intelligence activity
have provoked controversy and chilled East-West relations from Tokyo to
Paris to Bonn. Since Jan. 1, according to U.S. authorities, 93 Soviets have
been expelled from 13 countries on charges of espionage or'interfering in
domestic political'affairs.
But in Washington,- Soviet spying activity--and the American response
to it-follows-a familiar pattern developed over nearly four decades of
Cold War. 'With ~the-:predictability of two long-time dance partners, the
KGB and FBI, the agency charged with counterintelligence, are engaged in
a kind of stylized-pas de deux, acknowledging each other warily in public
while?sarrying on anintensestruggle that remains-shrouded in secrecy.
Given this secrecy and the sensitive political nature of the issue, assess-
ing damage caused by Soviet espionage is a difficult task. Interviews 'with
FBI officials, intelligence experts and scholars suggest, however, that de-
-spite worsening relations between the two superpowers and the accession
of former KGB chief Yuri Andropov as Soviet leader, the danger posed by
spying has not changed dramatically in the last couple of years.
"The number [of Soviet spies] remains fairly constant," says Theodore
M. Gardner, head of-the FBI's Washington field office, adding that there
was an increase in activity around President Reagan's inauguration that
was natural with the coming of a new administration.
Still, U.S. officials express concern that in the last decade the KGB's
operations in this country have become more effective.
"Soviet collection has continued to increase, particularly in the last sev-
eral years and particularly in areas of scientific and technological collec-
tion," said James E. Nolan, former deputy assistant director of the FBI
during the 1970s. "They are more organized, more sophisticated, less op-
portunisitic. There are specific things they are after. I would suggest to you
that the Soviets' requirement list would be the-size of a Washington tele-
phone directory."
There are about 280 Soviets assigned to their diplomatic mission here,
ranging from Ambassador Anatoliy Dobrvnin to cooks and drivers, according -
to U.S. authorities. By FBI estimates, about 130 of those are known KGB
intelligence agents or members of the Soviet military intelligence service, the
GRU. Nationwide, the FBI says, roughly 35 percent of the 1,300 Soviet per-
sonnel stationed in the United States are spies of some kind. -
This is a number that has steadily grown over the last decade and been
augmented by spies from Communist Bloc countries like Cuba, Poland, Bul-
garia and Czechoslovakia. As a result, the FBI has had to change its tactics
depending more on electronic eavesdropping.
"It's not possible to do anything like a comprehensive physical surveillance
-with 1,000 Soviets in the U.S. and a couple of thousand other bloc agents,
Nolan said. "Nobody can surveil 3,000 people every day.
"Surveillance has to be selective. It is very different from what it was in the
50s and 60s when the idea was that if you walked around with them they
could not do anything. In the 1950s there were about 50 Soviets at the Unit-
ed Nations Secretariat [today there are over 300]. Also gone is our ability to
know and recognize people."
The FBI's success in thwarting Soviet efforts is hard to measure. In April
two Soviets, a lieutenent colonel assigned to the office of the military attache
and a diplomat assigned to the nation's mission to the United Nations, were
expelled and a third left hurriedly after they were caught in unrelated espi-
onage activities. -
--L rmT .10
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100170020-2