Spy Swap Speculation

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32077, 27 August 1969, Page 8

Spy Swap Speculation

(N.Z.P.A.’lleuter—Copyrignij BONN, August 25. The West German Government today still refused to be rushed into any official comment on a reported spy swap with the Soviet Union, in spite of confirmation by South Africa that a deal of some kind did take place. Qualified sources said on Friday that South Africa surrendered ■ an important Russian spy, Yuri Nikolaevitch Loginov, to Moscow in exchange for 10 West German agents. The South African authorities last night officially admitted that Loginov had been handed over to a nonCommunist country which had an interest in him, but they refused to give any further details. , Even after this statement, official Bonn Government sources today continued to decline all comment on the affair. The sources said that Loginov, who was arrested in South Africa in September, 1967, and held without trial, betrayed the names of Soviet agents in many countries during the two years he was imprisoned there. The Hamburg Sunday newspaper, “Welt Am Sonntag,” said today the exchange had taken place-in Berlin last r month. It said that the West German agents who were released in exchange for Loginov were Social Democrats serving long prison sentences for courier activities in East Germany. The South African Government had agreed to the. threesided exchange at Bonn’s request, the newspaper said. The South African Defence Minister (Mr Pieter Botha) denied tonight that the exchange involved any arms

deal with a Western power. "The handing over did not incorporate any defence transactions between South Africa and ' other Western nations. South Africa buys its weapons where it can acquire them," he told Radio

. South Africa tn an interview. ! The Johannesburg “Sunday i Times” earlier reported that i the exchange was part of a i top-secret defence deal, from i which South Africa was to i get vital military equipment > from the West.