DEFECTORS: IMMIGRANTS OR COLD WAR PAWNS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302410006-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 13, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302410006-9
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
13 November 1985
Defectors: unrn(wmnts or cold war pawns?
BY Warren Richsv Z*
A second inquiry into the treatment accorded defec-
W
Does America's welcome mat needbe
dusted off?
The nation that coined "life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness" is asking whether it has
treated recent defectors as pawns in a super-
power chess match instead of fleet-footed
immigrants.
The commissioner of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, Alan C. Nelson, has an-
nounced an investigation of the incident in
which Ukrainian seaman Miroslav Medvid was
forcibly returned to his ship Oct. 25. Mr. Nel-
son says evidence suggests that agency proce-
dures were not followed in the case and that the
investigation could lead to disciplinary action
against the immigration agents involved. .
Defectors should be treated as individual hu-
man beings seeking shelter from oppression,
says Vladislav Krasnov of the Monterey Insti-
tute of International Studies, who himself
defected to Sweden in 1962.
Professor Krasnov says that a strictly hu-
manitarian approach would minimize the temptation to
assess defections by their possible impact on US-Soviet
relations. He feels the Ukrainian sailor's chances of suc-
cessfully defecting were reduced because of concern
within the State Department that the event might affect
the coming Reagan-Gorbachev summit.
"The main thing is to stick to the principles ... and
longstanding tradition of the United States offering hos-
pitality to oppressed people," says Krasnov, author of
"Soviet Defectors: The KGB Wanted List" to be pub-
lished by the Hoover Institution next month-
urc en o s a t decision to return to Moscow last
week insensitive to his state of mind while
mg to squeeze as much information a-s -w-w- We out of
him.
Mr.Yurchenko, a senior KGB official who defected to
the United States Aug. 1, walked away from his CIA es-
cort on Nov 2, and two days later held a press confer-
ence at the Soviet Embassy. He charged he had been
drugged and kidnapped by the CIA. US officials vigor-
ously deny the charges. They speculate that Yurchenko
was either part of an elaborate "sting" operation planned
by the KGB or was an actual defector who simply
couldn't cope with his decision to leave the Soviet Union,
his wife, and 16-year-old son behind.
Critics maintain that Yurchenko's CIA handlers
should have been more friendly to him and allowed him
to mix with other Soviet emigres in an effort to make him
feel more at home in his new surroundings. Intelligence
experts say that most Soviet defectors have gone through
extended periods of sadness and confusion after their da?
cisions to leave family and country behind.
"It was like a cold shower," says Vladimir Sakharov,
describing the 10-month CIA debriefing after his defec-
tion from a KGB post in Kuwait in 1971. "I had a very
hostile polygraph interrogation initially. They tried to
bring me down to the lowest possible level," he says.
V
Mr. Sakharov adds, "There is a third month in a de-
fection that is remorse. It happened in my case. Of
course, I couldn't share my feelings with my debriefers,
because I was scared of them. And I couldn't share my
feelings with the security men, because I was even more
scared of them than of my debriefers. I really don't know
how I survived the first year in the United States; it is
sort of a miracle to me."
Officials say. the danger in the Yurchenko and Medvid
affairs is that they could have a chilling effect on future
defectors. The US has long regarded defectors as a pri-
mary source of both intelligence and cultural information
- an open window into the closed Soviet system.
"Defectors have been one of the best sources of infor-
mation we have on the hostile intelligence threat to the
west," says Roy Godson, an intelligence specialist and
professor at Georgetown University.
He warns that the debate surrounding Yurchenko's
treatment in the US may unwittingly be playing into the
hands of the Soviets. " 'The CIA does not treat defectors
very well.' That is a message designed to reach Soviet of-
ficials who live abroad - 'Don't get near the CIA, they
will make life unpleasant for you,' " Mr. Godson says.
Sakharov says what is needed is a series of well-publi-
cized reforms. Among them: immediate job placement
during the debriefing process in a career that offers defec-
tors a vision of a productive future in the US.
"When you have no vision you have no hope. I was
hopeless for four years," says Sakharov, who said the
CIA never kept its promise to find him a good job. "For a
Russian to be unemployed is a crime - I was brought up
that way."
Both Krasnov and Sakharov praise the work already
being done at the private-sector Jamestown Foundation
in Washington. The foundation was formed in an effort
to help Soviet-bloc defectors cope with the shock and dif-
ficulties of Western life. Through an established support
network of former defectors, emigres, and concerned
Americans, the foundation helps new defectors find jobs
and housing, enroll in English lessons, and make friends
among Americans. Krasnov calls the Jamestown Foun-
dation "an idea whose time has come."'
"Defectors are extremely valuable individuals from
the intelligence point of view. And they are human be-
ings," says Godson. "I would hope that they would be
treated [by the US government] as valuable individuals."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302410006-9