Soviets Admit Defection of Soldier in Afghanistan

The Soviet Union acknowledged publicly for the first time Wednesday that one of its soldiers had defected in Afghanistan. It also said that another Soviet soldier given asylum in the United States wants to come home.

The defection was disclosed in an article by the official news agency Tass, which said the case of defector Nikolai Ryzhkov, 20, who returned to the Soviet Union last month, was exceptional.

The Soviet Union usually portrays Afghan deserters as having been captured and then coerced.

Tass also said Afghan veteran Alexander Voronov has told the Soviet Embassy in Washington that he wants to return home but that the U.S. State Department is dragging its feet on his case. No details were given, but Tass said Voronov was captured by rebels and beaten before going to the United States.

Says Another Seeks Home Ryzhkov deserted from his military construction unit June 16, 1983, but returned home last month after asking to be reunited with his family in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.

“Well, he was not one of those taken prisoner by bandits due to shell shock or grave injury. The Ryzhkov case is exceptional. The soldier’s lot proved to be too hard for him,” Tass said.

“He left his unit, got into the hands of rebels who brought him to Pakistan, where he expressed the desire to settle in the United States.”

Ryzhkov was quoted in the West as saying he became disillusioned with the “dirty war” in Afghanistan, left his unit and contacted Afghan resistance fighters in Kabul who smuggled him to Pakistan.

Tass said Ryzhkov was kept for four months at a guerrilla base near Peshawar where he was drugged, told enticing things about life in the West and that he would be executed or returned to unsympathetic Soviet authorities unless he cooperated in anti-Soviet slander.

Tass said he agreed to cooperate in order to get to the United States.

Takes Emigre Lover Tass said that in New York City, Ryzhkov became the lover of a 34-year-old Soviet emigre working under CIA cover who prepared anti-Soviet statements for him, including descriptions of Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan.

“Having had his share of the delights of the dirty anti-Soviet propaganda cuisine and venal love in New York City, Ryzhkov moved to Washington in March, 1984,” Tass said. In Washington, it claimed, he fell into the hands of a homosexual man with CIA connections.

Ryzhkov “got into the same vicious circle of sleazy propaganda and dubious love,” Tass said.

Ryzhkov, the news agency said, became tired of his life in the United States and lost his fear of punishment in the Soviet Union.

It did not say what his fate would be.