A Surfeit of Spies

The Soviet ambassador to Greece, Igor Andropov, has not had many good days lately. Exposure of the Soviets’ well-entrenched espionage/subversion network in Greece has seriously damaged their regional covert operations, hindered their acquisition of militarily significant technology, and left several key “diplomats” implicated in spying for the USSR.

Andropov’s troubles began with the Westward defection of high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer Sergei Bokhan last May. Before spring-heeling toward political asylum in the United States, Bokhan served a lengthy stint (1978 to 1985) in Greece as the Soviet Embassy’s first secretary for political affairs. That, of course, was a diplomatic cover. His actual post in Athens was deputy director of the GRU contingent. (The GRU—Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye, or Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Soviet General Staff—emphasizes military rather than political intelligence gathering. It also engages in subversion and terror worldwide.)

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Richard C. Carpenter

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The Soviet ambassador to Greece, Igor Andropov, has not had many good days lately. Exposure of the Soviets’ well-entrenched espionage/subversion network in Greece has seriously damaged their regional covert operations, hindered their acquisition of militarily significant technology, and left several key “diplomats” implicated in spying for the USSR.

Andropov’s troubles began with the Westward defection of high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer Sergei Bokhan last May. Before spring-heeling toward political asylum in the United States, Bokhan served a lengthy stint (1978 to 1985) in Greece as the Soviet Embassy’s first secretary for political affairs. That, of course, was a diplomatic cover. His actual post in Athens was deputy director of the GRU contingent. (The GRU—Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye, or Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Soviet General Staff—emphasizes military rather than political intelligence gathering. It also engages in subversion and terror worldwide.)