MOSCOW MOVES RAPIDLY IN DEFECTIONS TO THE U.S.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404310002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 7, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404310002-9
I 'TICIE APPEARED NEW YORK TIMES
PSG AAL_-- - 7 November 1985
Moscow Moves Rapidly
In Defections to the U.S.
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Vtaly Yurchenko is said to have done right away. One guy we had held back
before flying home yesterday, the for two and a half years."
Soviet union mounts a standard coun- Drugging Charge Is Derided
teroffensive intended to minimize the Mr. Rositzke derided Mr. Yurchen-
security damage and lure the defector
'
s contention that he had been
back, according to intelligence special- ko
ists and former defectors. drugged and abducted.
Typically, they say, the effort in- "If anyone starts kidnapping - boy,
volves attempts to reach the defector, do you get it back in your face," he
usually by invoking a consular agree- said, likening the relations between op-
ment guaranteeing access to each posing intelligence forces to those be-
-deuntry's citizens. tween national leaders. "You don't as-
Whether such an attempt was made sassinate heads of state because others
the case of Mr. Yurchenko, who says would be quick to reciprocate."
was kidnapped by American agents, , r The first step of the Soviet Union, the
__._~ ~.---- -- ---- --~-- ------ -~--
the result of any such effort. gered, specialists said.
Freedom of Movement
*Because Mr. Yurchenko seemed to
held loosely enough for him to walk
ay from dinner with his escort from
Central Intelligence Agency last
turday, the official said, the K.G.B.
man may also have been free enough to
Mahe contact with Soviet diplomats.
"Defectors are not prisoners," the
American official said. "After a while
here the security is uo to them."
According to a former G.I.A. officer,
Harry Rositzke, the pattern of a defec-
tion case is often set in the first day or
two. Before the Soviet authorities may
realize that their man is missing, he
said, American agents hurriedly de-
brief the defector to obtain as much in-
telligence as possible and act on it be-
fore the Russians take measures.
Mr. Rositzke, ,vho left the C.I.A. in
1970 after nearly 25 years, said defec-
tors often held back information as in-
surance for continued protection.
,: "Especially if he came over a little
reluctantly," Mr. Rositzke said, "he
icans - to give assurances that they
are not being held against their will.
One such confrontation was de-
scribed by Arkady N. Shevchenko, the
former Soviet diplomat.
In a book, "Breaking With Moscow,".
published this year, he recalled meet-
ing with Oleg A. Troyanovsky, the
Soviet delegate to the United Nations
,
and with Anatoly F. Dobrynin, the Am-
bassador to the United States, in the of-
fice of a lawyer, Ernest Gross, after
the defection became known.
Mr. Shevchenko wrote of Mr. Dobry-
ntn:
"Employing the intimate form of
'you' that Russian friends normally use
with one another, he expressed only
concern for me, bewilderment at my
action. 'Arkady, we have known each
other for many years. I don't believe
that all these years you have acted con-
trary to your convictions. How can it be
explained?'"
At the end, Mr. Shevchenko wrote,
the two diplomats handed over two let-
ters from his family, "arguing that I
had made a mistake, urging me to
come home to Moscow "
Yurchenko's case was not made public (
at the time he was said to have come calls to family members in the~Soviet
over to the American side in Rome last
May. Presumably, officials said, the
Russians inquired whether he was
being held by the Americans and, if
previous cases are a guide, the Amer-
icans refused to say.
mand to see him but we are not going to
cough him up right away," an Amer-
ican said.
Defection Cases Are Special
He acknowledged that the United
States and the Soviet Union had
pledged to allow access to citizens. But,
the agreement aside, he said, "defec-
tion cases are different."
"With a real hot potato," he added,
"we don't even acknowledge we have
him."
'However, officials said, defectors
are encouraged, as soon as they feel
comfortable, to meet with Soviet repre-
sentatives - in the presence of Amer-
Union are a standard feature of efforts
to win back defectors, said Bill Geim-
er, Mr. Shevchenko's present lawyer.
Mr. Geimer said there was an uncon-
firmed report that Mr. Yurchenko's
American hosts had arranged for him
been a tactical mistake.
In Washington, Yelena Mitrokhin
who left her husband, a Soviet Em
bassy official, to defect in 1978, said irk'
an interview that she knew Mr. Yur
chenko and that she had heard he
might have been depressed in Amer-
ican custody over a lack of opportunity
to speak Russian and an "inability to
share his feelings," including a report-
edly unhappy liaison with a woman in
Canada.
Mrs. Mitrokhin, who appeared Tues-
day on the ABC News "Nightline" pro-
gram, said she had tried to see Mr.
Yurchenko, but she said that while the
Federal Bureau of Investigation ap-
proved the idea, "the C.I.A. bureau-
cracy is never on time."
She said that after her defection she
agreed to meet at the State Depart-
ment with Soviet representatives.
"They put a lot of pressure on me, in-
cluding some threats," she said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404310002-9
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