MISSING SOVIET CITIZEN SEEKS ASYLUM IN U.S.

Document Type: 
Collection: 
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
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
August 28, 1982
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030051-0.pdf173.01 KB
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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 l in sti t d d' razi ian ve ga ors conce e - 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