‘RUSSIAN SEEMED TO BE DRUGGED’

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31480, 21 September 1967, Page 13

‘RUSSIAN SEEMED TO BE DRUGGED’

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

MOSCOW, September 20.

The Soviet scientist, Dr Vladimir Kachenko, arrived home last night, 76 hours after British police snatched him from a Moscow-bound Aeroflot aircraft at London Airport.

Soviet security offihim into a waiting cials immediately put black Zim limousine, a car often used in Russia as an ambulance, and sped out of the airport.

Western reporters were not allowed near the aircraft and could not see Mr Kachenko or his wife, Galina. An American woman aboard the plane said that during the flight Dr Kachenko spent most of his time staring out of the window. He did not eat the luncheon of steak and peas. “He was sitting next to his wife,” the tourist said. “She is a beautiful wdman, very dark-haired. She looks like an “They hardly spoke to each other during the flight.” She added that Dr Kachenko looked “sick and pale as if he had been drugged.” Last Saturday Dr Kachenko, aged 25, a scientist studying at Birmingham University, was removed from the plane at Heath Row Airport after i Soviet officials tried to fly him

out of Britain on the grounds that he was ill. The British authorities suspected a kidnap attempt, took him from the plane and questioned him until they were satisfied that he was returning to Russia of his own choice. He was released on Monday. The British Charge d’Affaires, Mr Keith Matthews, delivered a statement to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday answering a Soviet protest, which described the incident as a planned provocation. A British Embassy spokesman said he could not reveal the .contents of the statement, but described it as along the lines of earlier ones issued in London defending British actions as correct.

The stewardess of the Moscow-bound airliner from which the scientist was taken off on Saturday, Miss Sofromora, claimed yesterday that she had been manhandled by the British police. She told the Government newspaper “Izvestia” that the British police in their efforts to remove Dr Kachenko from the aircraft did not show any respect for women. “They grabbed me by the hand, trying to drag me from

the seat where Dr Kachenko was sitting,” she said. “They even used violence against his wife."

“Not Gentlemen”

“I told the police that they were not acting like gentlemen, but instead of answering they grabbed me again by the shoulders and shoved me very rudely into the aisle.” The pilot of the plane, S. Ivanov, said the police had punched, pushed and shoved passengers trying to protect Dr Kachenko. “Izvestia” last night printed the full text of the Soviet Foreign Ministry protest to Britain over the incident. The statement accused Britain of attempting to recruit Dr Kachenko as a spy and said the incident had been deliberately planned. United Press International reported that other returning passengers said Dr Kachenko slumped in his seat and did not eat during the flight, although meals were placed before him.

The stewards only gave him a spoon, keeping knives and forks away from him. They said that Dr Kachenko’s wife also was only given a spoon with which to eat her lunch.