K.G.B. bungle resulted in agent’s arrest

Press, 12 February 1982, Page 6

K.G.B. bungle resulted in agent’s arrest

NZPA London An extraordinary bungle by a K.G.B. official resulted in the Aeroflot manager in Jakarta being “shopped” as a spy to Indonesia’s counterespionage department, the London “Daily Telegraph” has reported. The Indonesians moved against Alexander Pavlovich Finenko after he had been identified as a key spy by a K.G.B. operative who had been given 24 hours to leave the country, said the newspaper’s Singapore correspondent, lan Ward.

Whether the K.G.B. agent, Lieutenant-Colonel Sergei Petrovich Egorov, panicked under interrogation, or unthinkingly blurted out his colleague’s illicit spying activities is uncertain, he said.

What is quite sure, though, is that Colonel Egorov, ostensibly an assistant military attache in the Soviet mission in Jakarta, gave vital details to the Indonesians about Finenko’s role in running an Indonesian military officer who had been regularly supplying secrets to the K.G.B. Colonel Egorov had been arrested in a Jakarta restaurant on Thursday night “in flagrante delicto.” He was caught paying his Indonesian contact for “highly sensitive” documents. Both the Russian and the Indonesian were taken away

for questioning. Colonel Egorov protested that the dinner date had been his first meeting with the Indonesian agent. Previously, he insisted, the Indonesian had been working for the K.G.B. with Finenko as his controller. Later that night Colonel Egorov claimed diplomatic immunity. He was declared persona non grata and ordered to leave the country in 24 hours. The Indonesians had already been watching Finenko and had documented his relationship with the Indonesian military officer. It was decided to detain him when he went to Jakarta’s Halim International Airport to bid farewell to the expelled diplomat. A second Soviet diplomat. Gregor Odaryuk, who was arrested with Finenko. was ordered to leave on Wednesday. Finenko remains in custody and reports from the Indonesian capital indicated that intentions were to place him on trial. Espionage carries the death penalty before a firing squad in Indonesia. Jakarta officials are bracing themselves for a deepening diplomatic crisis with the Soviet Union. According to Western diplomatic sources, the Russian Ambassador (Mr Ivan Shpedko) insisted that Finenko had been framed and demanded his release.