Ogorodnikova Gets 18 Years for Spying, Thanks Her Lawyers

Soviet spy Svetlana Ogorodnikova stood silently before a Los Angeles federal judge Monday as she was sentenced to 18 years in prison for espionage, then later thanked her lawyers in a public letter for saving her from a life sentence.

For the first time since her arrest last Oct. 2, the 35-year-old Russian emigre looked the part of the modern Mata Hari who was accused of sexually compromising an FBI agent into an espionage conspiracy for the first time in the nation’s history.

During a two-month trial that preceded a sudden plea bargain June 26, Ogorodnikova never wore makeup or even bothered to fix her hair. The image she presented to courtroom spectators and jurors was of a plain and simple woman, slightly bedraggled.

But as she stood before U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon to be sentenced, Ogorodnikova had transformed herself with lipstick, makeup and a stylish short haircut. In a white sweater and plaid skirt, she had changed her courtroom appearance almost totally.

As part of the plea agreement, Ogorodnikova and her husband, Nikolai, entered guilty pleas to one count each of conspiring with former FBI agent Richard W. Miller to pass secret documents to the Soviet Union.

Before Nikolai Ogorodnikov, 52, was sentenced by Kenyon on June 26 to an eight-year prison term, he lashed out at both the FBI and the U.S. government.

In contrast to her husband’s angry mood, Ogorodnikova appeared calm during Monday’s process. Her lawyers, Brad Brian and Gregory Stone, asked only that Kenyon recommend she serve her sentence at a federal prison in Pleasanton, Calif., so that friends could visit her.

Government prosecutors Bruce G. Merritt and Richard B. Kendall said they had no objections if the place of custody is satisfactory to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Kenyon agreed to make the recommendation on that basis.

Both Ogorodnikova and her husband will be eligible for parole after serving a third of their sentences.

Ogorodnikova’s letter to the public was revealed by her lawyers after the sentencing. In it, she expressed her grief at the imprisonment of her husband and her separation from her 13-year-old son, Matthew, now reported by government officials to have returned to the Soviet Union to live with relatives.

“My defense was excellent,” Ogorodnikova wrote. “I won the trial, and they had to do a lot in that. They saved me from a life sentence, they gave me back my life. . . . They didn’t work for money. No, they saved the life of a woman.”

Ogorodnikova, described by her attorneys throughout the months prior to her guilty plea as an emotionally troubled woman of low intelligence, thanked Brian and Stone as much for their friendship as for their legal assistance.

“Having lost my family, being lonely and very depressed, I found in them not only lawyers but friends,” she wrote. “They gave me their sympathy, warmth and attention. I have no words they (sic) could express my gratitude to them. . . . My heart will remember.”

Miller, 48, a former counterintelligence agent in the FBI’s Los Angeles office, first met Ogorodnikova in May, 1984, and they began a sexual relationship within days. According to the government, they started their espionage conspiracy last August, with Ogorodnikova acting under the instructions of Soviet KGB officials.

While Ogorodnikova has not yet publicly told her side of her relationship with Miller, her lawyers claimed prior to her guilty plea that she was victimized by both the FBI and the Soviet KGB. They claimed that Miller initiated talk of espionage. She is expected to be the key government witness against Miller in his trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 6.

The government claims that Miller, who is married and has eight children, was infatuated with Ogorodnikova. During the trial of the Ogorodnikovs, a tape recording was played of a conversation between Miller and Ogorodnikova in which the former agent declared that she had “stolen” his heart.

Ogorodnikova’s response was that it was her “business” to know Miller’s heart. Attempting to make that statement seem less ominous than it sounded, Brian and Stone argued during the trial that the reference was to a class in cardiac resuscitation that their client had completed.

Throughout Miller’s trial, Ogorodnikova is scheduled to be held in federal custody at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women in Los Angeles, while Ogorodnikov and Miller are incarcerated at Terminal Island Federal Prison.