WHY SPIES DEFECT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010010-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: July 1, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010010-0
'FTICLE APPEARED
PARADE
1 July 1984
STATE
WHY SPIES
B Y
R O B E R
YOUNG RUSSIAN LISTED
as a second secretary at the Soviet Mission
in Geneva sidled up to a Western diplomat
attending a United Nations conference a
few years back and murmured. "1 think
Brezhnev stinks."
As "Andrei"-who at that time was also
a major in the Soviet military intelligence
service, the GRU-tells the story. he went
home thinking. "There. it's done. I've
defected." But, to his amazement, there
was no follow-up. The Western diplomat
apparently didn't think there was anything
extraordinary about attacking Brezhnev.
After all. his American colleagues were
less than reverent about President Reagan.
It took Andrei two more approaches before
his signals were read correctly. Eventually.
he was helped to escape to the West with
his wife and children-and has become an
invaluable source on the secret workings
of the GRU.
The episode tells us a good deal about
the chasm of understanding that divides
Soviet society from our own. It also poses
the question: Given the awesome risks
involved, what drives Soviet spies to de-
fect to the West'?
Defector is a word with a sour taste to it.
It has the same stem as "defective." In
Latin, the verb deficere means to fail or
be wanting." Yet, as a senior Western coun-
terintelligence official who has debriefed
manv of the most important KGB defectors.
observes. "These men aren't failures. One
common denominator is hieh intelligence.
combined with self-confidence, even arro-
gance. and the conviction that it's possible
to beat the system."
T
M O
S
Oleg Bitov speaks for many Soviets who Soviet MiG pilot Viktor Belenko, who dejected in 1976, arrives in Los Angeles.
have chosen the West when he says proudly, police and intelligence agency and as an outlet-for-
"I have not defected from my people or my country. I propaganda. Bitov seized his chance, during a visit to
have come to the West to help them." Bitov is the the Venice Film Festival last Se tember. to make con-
former foreign editor of Literary Ga:ette. familiarly p
known in MMoscow? as "KGB Gazerte" because it is used tact O with British officials. He is now living in England.
f
actors in Bitov s decision to defect
to provide cover for operatives of that Soviet secret ne o t e main
was that he had exnecred a thaw' in the cnviat rrn~r . o. ? L" itlflLJed
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010010-0