THE TRUTH ABOUT PETROV ...

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504830019-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: May 6, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504830019-3
BRISBANE. TELEGRAPH (AUSTRALIA)
6 May 1980
s
t " I l.j? Z
TOP'. 2 years bitter controversy
has sr.:rot;r!ded Via r-nips of
the Russ:a mats v'iadir..iraiit
Evdckia Petrov.
Their defection has been linked to a
conspiracy with iustralia n Security and
the Menzies Government, which was
?f!ghting for its life in the 1954 federal
elections.
Frith a. story rejecting those t_:eo: ies.
He is Michael 1`hwaites. 64. who was a director
of ASIO's couateres tonage branch between 1950
and 1971.
In P. new book. "Truth Will Out - ASIO and
the Petrors " T^ : attes =-,s that ZFenwcs bad
nothing to do with the move..
`All the facts 1mown to me confirm that Men-
zies bad nothing to do with the tithing of Petror's
'defection"he
b~~ i. ~T? rt
"Should Ire'= evidence cone to light proving
that he did path the songs. .. ile 'seeping So-.V
(row Sir Charles Sn:y and then Director General
of ASIO i, me self and ASIOs counterespionage
branch in ignorance. his pu:.i:d career as Austra-
lia s longest- ser vi: i Prime Minister must appear
as a :taste of h !s :ca talents.
"As a super-aiens in the norld'of secret in-
tetligence he could have made Kim I hilby look,
like a fumbling i-:ncce^.t.
Thvmites says the fir-t Menzies knew of the
defection was Arai 4, 1954 - a. day after Petrov,
Third Secretary at the Russian Embassy In Can-
born and a colonel in the Soviet MVD secret ser- -
S?ice, sought -al cal asylum.
. But Thu-mites aclmo:sleced in an interview,
the affair had been ' :so:ne help' to `.: nzies in the
ensuing elections In May. which were held against
the bsckgrouad of the ALP leading opinion polls.
Sixteen days after Petrov defected, his wife
Erdolia, also a r. 1111V D. officer, asked for asylum in
dramatic circ'.s s:ances..
Sirs Petrov was Treat a r_rtual crier in the
embassy:'. And was so r:~=Mugiht, reveals Thwaitcs,
that she atte-npe to hang herself with the --flex
of an a/ert::c 1---r-
On A,.rii 19 she was driven fr_+rn Canberra to
Sydney in the c;ncady of two Soviet couriers for a
Mght back to -aa:?3cow.
At Sydney aLrpmrt she was dragged stumbling
c{ r,1 r~+ j 1= Sit-' r 1
it U `v .:.i W u iJ
Mrs Petrov is hustled to :;cr pane by Soviet
couriers_,
across the tarmac as a huge, angr crowd looked
on.
Unknown to her says Thr-a-ites. her husband
was watchhing_ from under a tarpaulin in a utili;y?
parked near the runway where i:SIO had hoped to
arrange a eetirg. But the violence and the con-
fusion of the crowd had ruled this out.
The 7! :our flight to Darwin gave Mrs Petrov
her first chance to collect her w its - and gave
ASIO a chance to consider further action.
It was In Darwin, where the plane stopped to
refuel, that Australian police and officials parted
Mrs Petro: from her bodyguards, and firs Petrov
soon was driving away with an Australian official,
'to the safe-.y of the Australian Government".
'Thwaites. who after resi nirg from ASIO
worked as Assistant Parliamentary Librarian in
Canberra until 1975, was in charge of the Petrov
c.se from i is b ;innings in 1953.
But it was not until 1634 that he met them,
when he be. an the process of debriefing then.
He reveals that during the for owing 19
months he was given the task of ghcstwrit:r.; the
Petrov's bxk. "Empire of Fear'.
Our s::cc:v over the k'ctrot defection put
ASIO on ti;a map both in Australia and o-,t1rsras
in a way that nothing else could have done," be
says. _
a THE TRUTH WILL-OUT - AS!O
AND THE PETROVS, by Michael
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504830019-3