SOVIET SAYS A C.I.A. STATION CHIEF PASSED ON INSTRUCTIONS TO DANILOFF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706630006-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: September 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0706630006-7
UN rAL t _..Li11L." y r vr%r% i li?iGJ
14 September 1986
Soviet Says a C.I.A. Station Chief
Passed On Instructions to Daniloff
By PHILIP TAUBMAN
Special to The New York Times
MOSCOW, Sept. 13 - The Soviet
Union presented new espionage
charges against an American corre-
spondent today and said the United
States was holding East-West relations
hostage to the case.
The charges were presented by Gen-
nadi F. Gerasimov, Foreign Ministry
spokesman, at a news briefing. He said
the Soviet Government had "irrefuta-
ble" evidence that the correspondent,
Nicholas S. Daniloff of the magazine
U.S. News & World Report, had "acted
on instructions" of an American diplo-
mat, Murat Natirboff, who ended an as-
signment here this summer.
The Soviet Government press agen-
cy, Tass, in reporting Mr. Gerasimov's
briefing, identified Mr. Natirboft as
Moscow station chief of the Central In-
telligence Agency.
Taroslav Verner, a spokesman for
the United States Embassy, said Mr.
Natirboff's title at the embassy was
counselor for regional affairs.
[In Washington, a White House
spokesman repeated the Govern-
ment's assertion that Mr. Daniloff
was not a spy and had never worked
for an American intelligence organi-
zation. At the State Department, a
spokesman declined to provide infor-
mation about Mr. Natirboff.]
Mr. Natirboff is the second embassy
official to have been linked by the
Soviet authorities to Mr. Daniloff. Last
Monday the Government newspaper
Izvestia said Mr. Daniloff had been al-
luded to in a letter from Paul M. Stom-
baugh, an embassy staff member who
was expelled in June 1985 for what
Moscow said was espionage.
Daniloff Again Denies U.S. Link
Mr. Daniloff, who was released from
prison Friday into embassy custody
pending trial, told The Associated
Press that he "would not dignify the
charges by commenting on them."
Earlier, in a written statement read
by his wife, Ruth, he said, "1 have no of-
ficial or secret relationship with any in-
telligence agency."
The custody arrangement under
which Mr. Daniloff was released from
jail also involved the release in New
York of Gennadi F. Zakharov, a Soviet
employee of the United Nations, who
faces espionage charges in the United
States.
Mr. Daniloff, who is free to move
about Moscow but must check in with
the authorities by phone every day,
spent a quiet day at the embassy, ac-
cording to his wife.
Mr. Daniloff, in his written state-
ment, reported that he had called Va-
lery D. Sergadeyev, the investigator
handling his case, three times today
but the phone was not answered.
She said he was "nervously and emo-
tionally exhausted" from his 14-day
confinement at Lefortovo Prison.
The Daniloffs, although free to re-
turn to their own apartment under the
terms of the release, have settled tem-
porarily in a spare apartment in the
embassy compound.
When Mr. Daniloff was arrested on
Aug. 30, he was preparing to wind up
his assignment and return to the
United States. His replacement, Jeff
Trimble, has moved into the U.S. News
apartment with his family.
Mr. Gerasimov, the Foreign Ministry
spokesman, who presented the new es-
pionage charges after Mrs. Daniloff
had read her husband's statement, said
continuation of the investigation did not
rule out a diplomatic resolution.
"We don't want such problems to poi-
son the atmosphere of relations," he
said. "The Soviet Union does not want
this trivial and secondary incident to
interfere with the development of rela-
tions between the United States and the
Soviet Union."
Unusual Saturday Briefing
Western diplomats said the unusual
Saturday briefing was apparently in-
tended to keep pressure on the United'
States to accept the Soviet position that:
the Zakharov and Daniloff cases were
similar and that the resolution of one
was tied to that of the other.
Secretary of State George P. Shultz
indicated Friday that the United States
had accepted embassy custody grudg-
ingly for the well-being of Mr. Daniloff.
The agreement appeared to represent
a retreat from Washington's earlier
position that Mr. Zakharov not be re-
leased until Mr. Daniloff was back in
the United States.
"The continued detention of Mr.
Daniloff on false charges is unaccept- i
able," Mr. Shultz said.
Mr. Gerasimov said Mr. Shultz had
adopted "an unacceptable position that
makes Soviet-American relations hos-
tage to the case of a trivial spy."
The Soviet spokesman, citing the
testimony of three unidentified Soviet
citizens, said Mr. Daniloff had been col-
lecting secret information about Soviet
military forces and installations, nu-
clear energy centers and radioactive
waste sites.
Says Data Given to U.S.
He said the information, including
copies of C.I.A. directives involving Mr.
Daniloff's activities, had been made
available to the United States, but had
been ignored by Mr. Shultz.
Mr. Gerasimov denied that the au-1
thorities once tried to pressure David'
Goldfarb, a geneticist, to set up Mr..
Daniloff. The incident had been related
by Mr. Goldfarb's son, Alex, a Colum-
bia University microbiologist.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman
said David Goldfarb had denied the ac-
count when he was interviewed re-
cently by a Tass reporter.
At the United States Embassy, Mrs.
Daniloff said that her husband, after
feeling "incredibly euphoric" when he
was released from prison, was decom-
pressing.
"It is gradually sinking in that he is
still a hostage," she said.
She said that just before he left the
prison, Mr. Daniloff was asked by his
cellmate, a scientist, to smuggle out a
mathematical formula, apparently an
attempt to entrap Mr. Daniloff.
She said her husband lost weight dur-
ing the confinement and at first had dif-
ficulty sleeping because the lights in
the cell were left burning all night.
Mr. Daniloff, saying it was time "to
cool" the furor around his case, said it
might disrupt Soviet-American rela.
tions as the two sides approach a deci-
sion on whether to schedule a summit
meeting this year.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0706630006-7