DEFECTOR TERMS KREMLIN' S INFIGHTERS 'POLITICAL PYGMIES'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100170049-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: June 6, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100170049-1
STAT
D
AFxTcLE
L
AON PAGE 6 June 1982
elector 7ernns . Kremlin's InfiAters
Political Pygnues'
By Robert G. Kaiser
Washington Post Staff Writer
Americans should not expect the current power strug-
gle in the Kremlin to produce eithei a strong new leader
or significant changes in Soviet policies for at least sev-
eral years after the demise of Leonid I. Brezhnev, accord-
ing to the highest-ranking Soviet official ever to defect to
the United States.
Arkadi N. Shevchenko, 51, who was undersecretary
general of the United Nations in New York when he
sought American asylum in April, 1978, also says Amer.
icans would be wrong to believe they can force conces-
sions because.of the. Soviets' current economic and as
ricultural difficulties. In an interview with The Washing-
ton Post, the first extensive one he has given since his
defection, Shevchenko said no foreseeable Soviet lead-
ership could afford the risks that would accompany sig-
nificant departures from current foreign and domestic
policies.
"Nobody will succeed Brezhnev " Shevchenko said,
adding that no new leader could combine the titles and
powers that Brezhnev holds. Such power, he said, can
only be accumulated over many years.
Shevchenko has spent many months telling U.S. of-
ficials what he knows of Soviet personalities and policies
and the workings of the Soviet system,, and senior offi-
cials say his information has been valuable and often
unique. Shevchenko, who. said American officials now
make no attempt to control what he says'or does in pub-
lic, sought out a Washington Post reporter through a
U.S. intelligence official he befriended soon after he de-
fected.
During Shevchenko's 22 years as a Soviet diplomat he
met the principal contenders for power in the ,post-
Brezhnev era. Much of Shevchenko's access'th.the upper
reaches of-the Soviet establishment came. as a result of
his close ties to Andrei A. Gromyko, the-Soviet foreign
minister, whom he served as personal political adviser
from 1970 to 1973, before becoming the highest-
ranking Soviet at the United Nations.
Unlike some Soviet defectors, Shevchenko does
no portray the Soviet leaders as implacable op-
ponents of capitalism who are hell-bent on con-
quering the West. Instead, he said, they are most-
ly second-rate men without strong personalities or
distinct views who are always interested .in accu-
mulating personal power, but not if it means risk-
ing the system of rank and privilege that has
served them all so well.
This does not mean that there are "moderates"
or "liberals" in the Kremlin. leadership, Shev-
chenko said, but rather that the men who run the
Q'nvint TTninn ArP aPnprAlly small-minded and cau-
STAT
"These people are political pygmies" he said.
Shevchenko said Brezhnev often has been phys-
ically incapacitated since, 1976 or 1977, yielding
much day-to-day power to his longtime protege,
Kanstantin Chernenko. During meetings in which
Shevchenko took part in 1977, Brezhnev was ob-
viously suffering from severe memory loss and:
disorientation, he said.
"1 was shocked at his condition," Shevchenko:
said. Although Brezhnev continued to have mo
ments of effectiveness and lucidity in the years'
since, he added, this was often "a case of a man;
who could not think"
Shevchenko has married an American woman
and settled in an area not far from the nation's'
capital He acknowledged that. he is anxious to
improve his image in this ' country, which was
badly tarnished by his affair with a Washington
call girl that turned into a public scandal.
Shevchenko said he was in terrible shape dur-
ing the first months after he defected, drinking
heavily and behaving badly with the call girl, Judy
Chavez, whom he paid thousandlof dollars-pro
vided by the CIA=every month. Chavez de-
scribed this period in sleazy detail in 'her paper-
back book, "Defector's Mistress."
Shevchenko's first wife died under mysterious
circumstances in Moscow shortly after she was
rushed back from New York when security agents
discovered her husband had defected. Shevchenko
charges that the Soviet security police, the KGB,
murdered her. A son and a daughter from this
marriage are living in the Soviet Union.
Today Shevchenko has given up drinking, and
h1i American friends say his new wife has helped
change his life. A small, stooped man with a hand-
some Slavic face and flowing white hair, he looks
fit ahd talks with energy. He is working on a book
about his experiences, and hopes to write and lec-
ture here on'Soviet affairs.
$hevchenko's close relationship with Gromyko
gave him an intimate view of the top Soviet lead-
ers that was unusual for a Soviet diplomat. Like
,other experts and specialists, diplomats are sel-
doni allowed into the inner circle. Still, much of
Shevchenko's information is secondhand, based on
gossip among the cadre. of experts who advise the
top leaders.
Shevchenko said the advanced age of the entire
ruling group has become an important political
factor. He revealed that after Gromyko fainted in
a meeting of the, ruling Politburo in 1973, the
group decided to order all its r.: embers to take
?~
one-f.ionth vacations twice each year. ...
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552 R000100170049-1