Sergei Tretyakov (intelligence officer)
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Colonel Sergei Tretyakov (born 5 October 1956[citation needed] in Moscow, USSR)[1] is a former Russian SVR officer who defected to the United States in 2000.
Tretyakov worked undercover as first secretary in the Russian mission at the United Nations for five years. In October 2000 Tretyakov defected to the U.S. with his wife and daughter, telling the SVR in a statement that "My resignation will not harm the interests of the country."[2] He also said that he considered immoral to serve Putin's government [1]. The timing of his decision was partly affected by the death of his mother in 1997, as she was the last close family member still living in Russia.[1] It was not until January 2001 when his defection was first reported by the Associated Press,[3] and the following month when his background as an intelligence officer was revealed by The New York Times.[4][5] After defecting Tretyakov was debriefed by both the CIA and FBI. He was given one of the largest U.S. financial packages ever for a foreign defector, over US$2 million, and resettled along with his family in an unknown location with a new name.[1][6]
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[edit] Book release
In January 2008 Tretyakov gave several interviews to publicize a book of his experiences, Comrade J.: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America after the End of the Cold War, written by journalist Pete Earley. Earley first met Tretyakov through an FBI contact at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia; two FBI agents and two CIA were assigned to Tretyakov as an escort.[6] The SVR responded to the book's release by calling it "self-publicity based on treachery."[2] The book's release in Canada was delayed by the publisher because of legal considerations, namely Tretyakov's accusation that former Conservative MP Alex Kindy was recruited by an SVR officer at the Russian embassy in Ottawa and paid several times between 1992 and 1993.[7]
[edit] Claims
- Azerbaijan's UN ambassador Eldar Kouliev was a "a deep-cover SVR intelligence officer."[6]
- United States Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott was "an extremely valuable intelligence source" being manipulated by SVR agents to disclose useful information (though not a spy)[6]
- Canadian MP Alex Kindy was recruited as a Russian spy.
- KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov sent US$50 billion worth of funds of the Communist Party to an unknown location in the lead up to the collapse of the USSR.[6]
- Raúl Castro was a long-term "special unofficial contact" for SVR.[8]
- "Nuclear winter" theory began as an intentional disinformation campaign.[9] Tretyakov says that during the 1970s the KGB wanted to prevent the United States from deploying Pershing II cruise missiles in Western Europe. The plan, under KGB Director Yuri Andropov, aimed at fostering popular opposition to the deployment included a massive disinformation campaign requiring false scientific reports from the Soviet Academy of Sciences and funding to European anti-nuclear and peace groups opposed to arms proliferation. The Soviet Peace Committee, a government organization, spearheaded the effort by funding and organizing demonstrations in Europe against the US bases.[9] [10] [11] The Soviet propaganda was then distributed to sources within environmental, peace, anti-nuclear, and disarmament groups including the publication Ambio.[9] The concept hit mainstream from there and propelled into popular culture with the help of Carl Sagan. Claims of KGB involvement have existed for years fueled in part by the strange disappearance of Vladimir Alexandrov, the man that created the mathematical model for the Nuclear Winter theory released in the study from the Institute of Terrestrial Physics, in 1985.[12].
- Two chiefs of Putin's Federal Protection Service (FSO), Viktor Zolotov and General Murov, discussed how to kill the former director of Yeltsin's administration Alexander Voloshin [13]. They also made "a list of politicians and other influential Muscovites whom they would need to assassinate to give Putin unchecked power". However since the list was very long, Zolotov allegedly announced, "There are too many. It's too many to kill - even for us." An SVR officer who told about that story felt "uneasy" because FSO includes twenty thousand troops and controls the "black box" that can be used in the event of global nuclear war [9]
- A claim about privately owned nuclear weapons. Tretiakov described a meeting with two Russian businessman representing a state-created Chetek corporation in 1991. They came up with a fantastic project of destroying large quantities of chemical wastes collected from Western countries at the island of Novaya Zemlya (a test place for Soviet nuclear weapons) using an underground nuclear blast. The project was rejected by Canadian representatives, but one of the businessmen told to Tretiakov that he keeps his own nuclear bomb at his dacha outside Moscow. Tretiakov thought that man was insane, but the "businessmen" (Vladimir K. Dmitriev) replied: "Do not be so naive. With economic conditions the way they are in Russia today, anyone with enough money can buy a nuclear bomb. It's no big deal really" [9].
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Senior Russian spy reveals secrets in new book", MSNBC, 2008-01-25. Retrieved on 2008-01-29.
- ^ a b "Russia calls spy defector's tales "treachery"", Reuters, 2008-01-28. Retrieved on 2008-01-28.
- ^ Schweid, Barry. "Russian Diplomat Defected to U.S.", Associated Press, 2001-01-30. Retrieved on 2008-01-28.
- ^ Risen, James. "Russian Defector Was Spy, Not Diplomat, U.S. Officials Say", The New York Times, 2001-02-10. Retrieved on 2008-01-28.
- ^ "Russian Spy Agency Dismisses Defector", Associated Press, 2008-01-28. Retrieved on 2008-01-29.
- ^ a b c d e Wise, David. "Spy vs. Spy", The Washington Post, 2008-01-27. Retrieved on 2008-01-30.
- ^ "Publisher puts brakes on book that contends former MP spied for Russians", Canadian Press, 2008-01-30. Retrieved on 2008-01-30.
- ^ Pete Earley, "Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War", Penguin Books, 2007, ISBN-13 978-0-399-15439-3, page 179
- ^ a b c d e Pete Earley, "Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War", Penguin Books, 2007, ISBN-13 978-0-399-15439-3, pages 161-177
- ^ Opposition to The Bomb: The fear, and occasional political intrigue, behind the ban-the-bomb movements
- ^ 1982 Article "Moscow and the Peace, Offensive"
- ^ A 1985 Time magazine account of Alexandrov's disappearance
- ^ "One idea was to kill him and blame Chechen separatists. Another was to make his execution appear to be a hit by the Russian Mafia" (Comrade J., page 299)
