Vitaly Yurchenko - Redefector or Plant?

Redefector or Plant?

At a 1999 Texas A&M conference attended by several CIA intelligence professionals, as well as KGB General Oleg Danelovich Kalugin, the question of Yurchenko's defection came up. Kalugin stated that Yurchenko started out as a real defector, then changed his mind and redefected. Kalugin gave several points:

• The KGB typically didn't use 'fake defectors' because the defection would be a propaganda problem for the Soviet government. ("People were not supposed to run from the paradise")
• Yurchenko was in love with a woman married to a Russian official, and thought that in the US they could be together. This did not work out as planned.
• Yurchenko had a stomach ulcer that worried him greatly, and thought it could be cured in the US. It wasn't.
• Yurchenko's defection was leaked to the media, after he'd been promised it wouldn't.
• Yurchenko "felt his freedom to move around was sort of limited by the CIA".
• Yurchenko apparently thought the KGB might treat him well because of the cases of recent redefectors like Betov and Chebatriov.

Another panelist also believed he was a legitimate defector. James Olson of the George Bush School said "I think he was a very disturbed individual and he redefected out of psychological problems that he had." Paul Redmond said that Sandy Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille (of the Aldrich Ames case) also believed Yurchenko was genuine. Redmond on the other hand thought it possible that Yurchenko might have been sent by the KGB as a "starburst".