SOVIET TIES DANILOFF TO CIA AGENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100600002-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100600002-6
UAP *--
14 September 1986
Soviet Ties
00
to
Daniloff
CIA Agent
Spokesman Charges
Embassy Official
Directed Reporter
By Celestine Bohlen
Washington Post Foreign Service
MOSCOW, Sept. 13-A Soviet
spokesman today accused U.S.
News & World Report correspon-
dent Nicholas Daniloff of spying for
a Moscow-based CIA agent, and
said U.S. denials of the relationship
were "attempts at misinforming
world opinion."
Gennadi Gerasimov, spokesman
for the Foreign Ministry, also said
Soviet scientist Gennadi Zakharov,
charged with spying in the United
States, was the victim of an "act of
provocation."
"As you can - see, the cases are
completely different," said Gerasi-
mov at a briefing for foreign and
Soviet correspondents.
Gerasimov named Murat Natir-
boff as the CIA agent who ostensi-
bly gave Daniloff his instructions.
The Soviet news agency Tass went
further in a report on Gerasimov's
briefing, identifying Natirboff as the
Moscow CIA station chief. Natirboff
served as a counsellor on regional
affairs at the U.S. Embassy until
this summer, when his normal two-
year tour ended, an embassy
spokesman said.
Gerasimov gave other details of
the charges compiled against Dan-
iloff, alleging that between 1982
and 1986, he collected information
on the location of military units and
military facilities. A "Citizen L."
said that between 1982 and 1986,
Daniloff persistently asked him
about troops in Afghanistan. A "Cit?
izen K." in Voronezh, a city south of
Moscow, said Daniloff asked about
military facilities and about places
where radioactive waste is stored,
including Kone in the Moscow area.
Asked later whether nuclear
waste storage sites are secret in
the Soviet Union, Gerasimov said,
"Each country has its own rules. In
this case, this is secret informa-
tion."
Daniloff, released yesterday from
a Soviet military prison and now
living in the U.S. Embassy com-
pound, issued a statement today in
which he again asserted that he has
had "no official or secret relation-
ship with any intelligence agency."
"If you ask why I was arrested, I
believe my arrest was carefully en-
gineered to give the Soviet side
some bargaining leverage in the
case of Gennadi Zakharov in New
York," Daniloff said in a statement
read today by his wife Ruth.
Ruth Daniloff, who has moved
into the embassy compound with
her husband, said today he was
"nervously and emotionally ex-
hausted," and that he had lost
weight during his 13 days in prison.
At his briefing, Gerasimov said
Daniloff's release seemed to have
fanned a new "fuss," which could
harm any progress in the U.S.-So-
viet relationship.
Gerasimov cited, in particular,
comments by Secretary of State
George P. Shultz that Daniloff's
release from prison to the embassy
still left him a "hostage," and that
his situation impeded improved re-
lations.
"This unacceptable position
makes the U.S.-Soviet relationship
hostage to the cause of a trivial
spy," Gerasimov responded today.
Today's volley of words came as
diplomats continued to try to untie
the next knot in the cases of
Zakharov and Daniloff.
The joint agreement to release
the two to their respective embas-
sies "does not mean that further
diplomatic negotiations would not
lead to a final resolution in this
case, and other cases like it," Gera-
simov said today.
One option, observers here spec-
ulate, is the release of Daniloff and
a jailed Soviet dissident to the Unit-
ed States in return for the release
of Zakharov to the Soviet Union.
Such an arrangement was agreed to
in 1978, when a U.S. businessman
was held in Moscow after the arrest
of two Soviet employes of the Unit-
ed Nations.
A straight trade of Daniloff for
Zakharov has been ruled out by
U.S. authorities and Daniloff him-
self, since they say it implies that
both are spies.
By agreeing to yesterday's pro-
visional release and by Gerasimov's
comments today, the Soviets
seemed to be signaling their eager-
ness to get the Daniloff case behind
them-without backing off their
charges.
A scheduled meeting on Friday
and Saturday between Shultz and
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze is a logical deadline
for the negotiators, and some ob-
servers speculate that a resolution
will be found in the next week.
Daniloff also appealed today for a
lowering of the rhetoric around the
case.
"I believe the time has come to
cool it," he said. "Right now I am
genuinely concerned that the furor
might get out of hand and upset a
process which is far more important
than the details of my case, or the
case of Mr. Zakharov."
He also refused to discuss the
charges against him in detail, saying
he would do so when he returns to
the United States. Later today, he
told a reporter that he did not want
to "dignify" Gerasimov's specific
charges with comment.
Gerasimov said that Daniloff had
been acting "on instructions of Na-
tirboff, a spy resident" at the U.S.
Embassy.
Gerasimov today gave the first
official comments on the Zakharov
case, which was mentioned for the
first time in the Soviet press yes-
terday with the announcement of
the joint agreement.
According to Gerasimov,
Zakharov, 39, was given an envel-
ope containing defense material and
then arrested. Gerasimov called the
incident "an act of provocation on
the part of the secret services," and
said "the U.S. side until now has
presented no real evidence showing
the guilt of Zakharov."
Gerasimov today also said that
Soviet geneticist David Goldfarb
had refuted claims that Soviet au-
thorities had tried to get him to
compromise Daniloff two years ago.
At the earlier press conference,
Ruth Daniloff, accompanied by U.S.
News deputy managing editor Hen-
ry Trewhitt, said Daniloff's cell-
mate, a Moscow mathematician
who was believed to be an informer,
asked the American to carry out
some documents when he left-
"some mathematical formulas,"
Ruth Daniloff told reporters.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100600002-6
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100600002-6
Daniloff is expected to give a
press conference on Sunday. He
had promised one today, but "was
not feeling up to it," Trewhitt said.
The Associated Press reported
from Washington.
"Misha," the Soviet acquaintance
who handed Daniloff a package im-
mediately before his Aug. 30 arrest
by the KGB, is Mikhail Anatolevich
Luzin, Daniloff told Trewhitt, ac-
cording to an account published
yesterday by U.S. News.
Daniloff described Luzin as "a
bright young man" in his mid-twen-
ties and said he met him in Frunze
in 1982, the magazine said. "I do
not believe he was a KGB agent
from the start, but I believe the
KGB reached him after two or
three years," Daniloff said.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100600002-6