How much does the motherland betray?
WORKING ON THE RELATION OF POWER
In April 1963, in the United States, FBI employees recruited Soviet citizen Nikolai Chernov, who at that time worked in the General Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff. Since then, for almost thirty years, Chernov has been listed as an FBI agent, and from time to time he leaked to Americans the most valuable information about the activities of the Soviet special services.
It is curious that purely material interest was not the only motive for Chernov. The Americans in the recruitment process were able to instill in their future agent that his work for the FBI is an important condition for the rapprochement of the two countries - Russia and the United States. Say, during the Second World War, our countries were friends, and then for various reasons became adversaries. So, it is time to end the cold war and once again become friends and allies.
Oddly enough, Chernov was led to such a bullshit. However, I did not forget about the remuneration either, demanding thousands of Soviet rubles for my 10 services. The fee was immediately paid, and Chernov plunged into espionage work.
On duty in the GRU, Chernov had access to secret documentation, because as a technical officer of the Soviet residency in the United States, he took photographs of documents and processed incoming and outgoing mail. It is not surprising that his first major contribution to the rapprochement of the two great powers was the transfer to the Americans of the secrets used by Soviet military intelligence.
And then we went. By the end of Chernov’s business trip to the USA, the Americans had copies of almost all documents that passed through the GRU residency. While escorting Chernov to Moscow, the Americans instructed their agent in detail, supplied him with copying paper, cryptographic tables, and two cameras.
In Moscow, Chernov continued work on the rapprochement of the two countries. Everything that came into his field of vision, he carefully re-took and waited for an opportunity to forward to his American friends. And soon such a case presented itself. In 1968, Chernov was transferred to work in the international department of the CPSU Central Committee. And in 1972, they sent him back to the USA, but already as a diplomatic courier.
Taking advantage of this, Chernov calmly drove across the border a huge amount of secret papers of varying degrees of importance - all that he managed to copy over several years of work in Moscow. And in most cases, Chernov did not even delve into the essence of the documents themselves - the main thing is that the vulture “was placed top secret” on them.
FBI friends were pleased. However, during one of the conspiracy meetings, they did not fail to show their agent a plump file on him with a lot of “compromising evidence”. Realizing that he was on a tight hook at the FBI, Chernov was so impressed that he washed down in black. As a result, he was sent to a mental hospital and was dismissed from service. After that, for several years he ran into different institutions, trying to get a profitable position, but he could not get well settled.
Counterintelligence, albeit with some delay, entered Chernov at the start of 1990's. In April, 1991, he was arrested. And in September of the same year, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR recognized citizen Chernov Nikolai Dmitrievich as a traitor to the Motherland and, given the defendant’s old age, sentenced him to eight years in prison. By that time, Chernov was an 64-year-old with a bunch of all kinds of diseases, of which the most harmless are stomach ulcers and nervous system disorders.
And the rapprochement of the two powers at the end of the 1980-s began without the participation of Chernov.
AND AGAIN VINCENT CROCETT
In 1989, the CIA recruited Lieutenant Colonel GRU Vyacheslav Baranov. It happened in Bangladesh, where Baranov served since 1985.
The direct recruiter of Baranov was the CIA personnel officer Vincent Crockett. Fifteen years earlier, this Crockett had already recruited the GRU officer, Anatoly Filatov, in Algeria. In 1977, in Moscow, counterintelligence officers were detained while attempting to transfer the spy cache of Filatov and Crockett. Filatov, as it should be, punished Soviet justice, and diplomat Crockett was expelled from the USSR. And now, fifteen years later, Crockett, being the first secretary of the US embassy in the Republic of Bangladesh, and concurrently a resident of the CIA, hooked up the guardian again - this time Vyacheslav Baranov.
By agreeing to cooperate, Baranov immediately demanded a lump sum payment in the amount of 25 thousand dollars, as well as a monthly salary in the amount of two thousand dollars. Crockett quickly agreed on all financial matters, and collaboration began.
To begin with, Baranov (who was assigned the operational pseudonym Tony) told Crockett in detail all he knew about the composition of the GRU residency and the KGB residency in Bangladesh, handed over the names of residents, revealed details of some operations. And then, returning to Moscow, Baranov, on the instructions of the Americans, tried to find information about bacteriological preparations that were developed in the laboratories of the GRU.
After the collapse of the USSR, Tony tried, using his connections, to move permanently to Europe. For this purpose, I got a fake passport and agreed with the Austrian authorities on a short-term visa. However, in August 1992, he was arrested while passing border controls.
Since secrets given to Baranov were outdated by the time of his arrest and his actions did not cause much harm to the country's security, the traitor was sentenced to only six years in prison.
YOU ARE CALLED ON EMBASSY OF AMERICA
28 September 1993, a senior researcher at one of the research institutes of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Moses Finkel, was invited to the American embassy, where he was offered a very good offer to become a CIA agent. Moses Zusmanovich did not hesitate for a second: he dreamed of this his entire adult life.
True, in the Soviet years, dreams have remained dreams. But after the collapse of the “evil empire”, Finkel realized that his time had come. And he began to fulfill his cherished dream.
For a start, he sent letters to his numerous relatives in the United States and Israel, in which they tearfully asked him to find a cushy place behind the hill. Then he began to bombard the American embassy with requests to grant him refugee status. Several of his messages remained unanswered. But Finkel did not give up. And finally, the long-awaited invitation came from the embassy ...
However, the main topic of conversation with a representative of the consular section, John Satter, was not refugee status. Without special prefaces, Satter suggested Finkel to sell information, which is of interest to the United States. This will make good money, which will be useful to Finkel and his family for the subsequent carefree life in the States. And Americans were interested in information about the latest hydroacoustic devices for Russian submarines.
Finkel's next meeting with representatives of the CIA took place on March 15, 1994, in Antwerp. There, Moses Zusmanovich explained to John Sutter everything he knew about his institute’s work in the field of hydroacoustics, after which he answered some questions in writing. Finkel valued his services at 15 in thousands of dollars. Satter promised to help.
And indeed at the next meeting, in a couple of days, Finkel received his first espionage fee. True, not 15 thousand dollars, but only a thousand. At the beginning of 1990, when people in Russia were happy with any handout, the Americans used it and tried to save on their agents whenever possible. But willingly gave promises. So Finkel Satter promised that 15 thousand will be transferred to his personal account in the United States.
Whether Satterter kept his word or not, Moses Zusmanovich never found out: on his return to Moscow he was arrested. And a few months later the trial took place.
Finkel received 12 years of imprisonment and instead of sunny California went to Mordovian camps.
MYSTERY "Bulava"
18 May 2012 at a closed meeting in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced engineer Alexander Gniteyev, an employee of the closed enterprise NPO Avtomatika. According to the investigation, Gniteyev handed over to foreign intelligence some technical data on the Russian ballistic missile "Bulava", for which he received a total of 50 thousand US dollars. For treason, the engineer Gniteyev was given eight years in a strict regime colony.
All this story shrouded in a thick veil of mystery. It is not clear when, where, and under what circumstances an engineer from the Urals sniffed with representatives of foreign special services. It is not even known what kind of intelligence Alexander Gniteyev worked for. The details of the operation to detain him were not disclosed. It is only known that Gniteyev’s contacts with foreign spies lasted for a long time, which means that over several years of his espionage career, the Ural engineer managed to transfer to the West a lot of valuable information about the latest developments in the field of domestic rocket production.
Of particular interest among foreigners was the newest Russian sea-based missile, the Bulava. The fact is that this type of missile has hypersonic warheads that can maneuver in such a way that even the most powerful computer anti-missile defense systems cannot calculate the trajectory of their flight.
Foreigners tried in vain to unravel the mystery of the Bulava. And they would never have guessed if it were not for the citizen Gniteyev, who agreed to share some secrets he knew.
MUCH SMILING AGENT MI-6
Former Lieutenant-Colonel of the FSB Alexander Litvinenko received two thousand pounds of sterling monthly from his new friends from British intelligence MI-6 after fleeing to the United Kingdom. Such data are given in the report on the “Litvinenko case”, recently published in the UK.
However, working as an agent of MI-6, apparently, did not serve as the main source of income for the defector. The fact is that Litvinenko, when he was an FSB officer, was not allowed to enter state secrets, and therefore could not interest British intelligence as a carrier of secret information. Litvinenko’s tasks in England were different. The defector used, as in his time Rezun, mainly in the ideological arena.
His work is loud statements about the involvement of the FSB in sensational terrorist acts and attempts on famous politicians and businessmen, including Boris Berezovsky. The goal is clear: to lower the already not the most favorable image of Russia in the eyes of the European man below the plinth.
The British do not spare money for this. It is known, for example, that only from the fund of Berezovsky, with whom Litvinenko was very close, the former lieutenant colonel received every month four thousand pounds sterling. Quite good fees him and unfastened for exposing the books. And Litvinenko was actively working as a consultant on Russian organized crime.
This topic is very popular in the West. Rumors of a powerful Russian mafia are artificially inflamed by Western intelligence agencies in order to create the visibility of a real threat from the average man and extract additional allocations for this matter. Therefore, from time to time the special services of Western countries hire as experts on the Russian mafia all sorts of dubious personalities who tell all sorts of horror stories for a decent fee.
Litvinenko from among them. In 1990-s, before escaping to the West, he worked in the FSB Directorate for the development and suppression of the activities of criminal organizations (later this structure was liquidated) and had very extensive contacts in the criminal world of Russia. These knowledge were useful traitor after the flight to the UK.
As a consultant on the Russian mafia, Litvinenko was used not only by the British, but also by the special services of other European countries. Fees for such consultations can reach tens of thousands of dollars. A good increase to the modest salary of the agent MI-6!
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