Film Of Russian Spy’s Activities

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30740, 3 May 1965, Page 10

Film Of Russian Spy’s Activities

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SYDNEY, April 30

A spy film based on the activities in Australia of the Russian agent, Ivan Skripov, was being shown as a security warning to staffs of Australian Government departments, the Sydney “Sun” said today.

Skripov was expelled in 1963 after the Government had charged him with attempting to organise a Russian espionage ring.

The film was put together from incidents photographed by Australian security agents who followed the Russian spy, the “Sun” said.

Some of it was recorded by distant cameras, some by concealed close-up lenses, and some by security men in moving cars.

The film was part of a general security alert as a result of Australia’s increasingly active involvement in Asian hostilities, the newspaper said. Skripov, the former First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Canberra, was trapped mainly through the work of a woman who was a security undercover agent. Scenes detailing her secret meetings with Skripov at the request of the Russian were shown.

The film opened with a meeting on March 4, 1961, between Skripov and the Australian agent, “Miss X." at the Taronga Park Zoo, in Sydney, the “Sun” said. Further meetings were ar-

ranged by the Russian in crowded public places. Some were arranged by Skripov in coded messages under his nom-de-plume, “Theresa.”

In some scenes, the spy was persuading “Miss X” to apply for a job in some diplomatic post or a Commonwealth government.