DEFECTOR: SOVIET UNION WON'T START NUCLEAR WAR, ANDROPOV LIKE ROBOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: March 2, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500004-1
POCATELLO IDAHO STATE JOURNAL
2 March 1983
Defector: Soviet Union Won
Start Nuclear
By BILL FRANCIS .
Journal Staff Writer
-dro
ovLi p a
Robot
Eventually, his wife was "elimi- A look at unretouchea photos wui
"The man
he says
tell the sto
.
ry
, Hated." Shevchenko has no proof, .hooks .much-?oider than his age He '
Arkady Nikolayevich Shevchenko but believes the KGB made it ;-a ~--~--~-r Y
t -
doesn't like to be called a defector. "medical assassination," through ~~ t have much time to
doesn't meet his new plan if he has new
new
Instead, he says he "broke with the an overdose of drugs or some other plan."
Soviet Government." treatment. He noted that Andropov is skillful
That's :-what: he told -about 500 Immediately debriefed by the and has a strong will, but also said
people -At Idaho-State University's CIA:after ecting,ihe says he told as "deprived. of any human
Student; Union- Building ballroom IfWm--everything he knew about
'Soviet leaders and the country s approach. He's almost'-tike robot,"
Tuesday night. He received a warm who makes decisions an. facts and
response from the crowd. goals. onlfacts.
There's no word in the Russian His audience last .night got a only
language which means "defector," shortened version of that informa- But, he explained,. Andropov
h the
~ tion, with updates on the must share his power with the
says Shevchenko, and he doesn't possibility other 12 members of the Politburo.
like the word. "It smells like trai- of nuclear war-and the personality That task is made easier by his
tor," he said. "I do not consider yof new " Party General Secretary status as an "apparatchik" - one
myself traitor. I consider -SoveT Yuri Andropov. who has worked within the Commu-
leadership traitors." Shevchenko emphatically said nist Party all his life - but even
Then-Under Secretary General that the Politburo, barring an acci- that has its drawbacks.
for political and security council dent, would not start a nuclear "Andropov is not something
affairs at the United Nations and war. His opinion is "based on new," said Shevchenko. "He is not
one of Secretary General Kurt knowledge of the thinking of the different man from others in Polit-
Waldheim's top advisors,-S4v-- Soviet leadership. They'd like to buro."
chenko7 -decided in "April 1978 to achieve their goals, but not through Essentially, he said, "all Soviet
break with his government.
But he was also a Soviet diplo-
mat. His U.N. position had put him
in almost daily contact with the
Kremlin, where he said members
of the Politburo had no respect for
his job as an international civil
servant.
He said the decision to leave had
not come quickly, but over a period
of years. He had amassed an "ac-
cumulation of discontent" which
came from learning of the "duplici-
ty" of Soviet leaders.
Somehow, the KGB (secret police
in the USSR) got wind of his
discontent, tricked his wife into
going back to Moscow by telling
her he had been kidnapped, then
ordered him back to Moscow for
"consultation."
He knew better. 'Though he had
been planning to break with the
government, he knew that the KGB
was onto him. He disappeared, only
to surface a few days later at the
Century Association, an elite New
York club.
nuclear war. They know them-
selves they would perish." -
On Andropov, he said the new
leader is "In my view the most
intelligent Soviet leader since Len-
in's time." He said Andropov was
unusual among recent Soviet lead-
ers because of two reasons: he was
the first one since Lenin who estab-
lished and consolidated his power
so quickly and he was the oldest of
the Soviet leaders to do so at age
69.
Shevchenko said Andropov, be-
cause of his experience as head of
the KGB, is the only one of the
Politburo who knows the "real
situation" in the Soviet Union. "It
is one of his `assets," said Shev-
chenko.
The former ambassador charac-
terized Andropov's regime as hav-
ing "new style, new tempo," and
unlike Brezhnev in his last years,
he says Andropov still has the
physical energy to do his job.
But even Andropov is not in good
health, says Shevchenko. "A couple
of times we vacationed in same
resort. We even were treated by
same doctors. He has serious heart
condition."
leaders are cut from same cloth.
They all truly believe in final
victory of Soviet-style Commu-
nism."
Shevchenko believes that sub-
stantially different policies could
come from a new generation of
Soviet leaders, but does not expect
that to happen for at least another
10 to 15 years.
Meanwhile, he says Andropov's
recent drive to eliminate corruption
from the Soviet Union could eventu-.
ally cause him trouble.
"I would not be surprised if
Andropov would deprive elite class
of their privileges, he may be
removed like Khruschev was re-
moved."
He says the action is "treating
the symptom, not the disease,"
which he says is overcentralization
of-power in the Soviet 'Union. As an
example, he told the audience that
the Politburo meets every week to.
consider 70 to 100 questions, some
of them relatively small matters
such as the appropriation of funds
for a public building.
a Z7WUED
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His growing discontent with Sovi-
et leaders and the Russian obses-
sion with secrecy finally took their
toll on Shevchenko.
"Maybe I was born in wrong
country," he ,said. "I didn't like to
do all my life what I was ordered to
do. They watch you all the time.
Even open your mail and bug you
all the time.
"But I have never regretted my
decision," he added. "I consider
this country has given me what my
motherland didn't give me." .
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500004-1