Colonel in KGB Defects to U.S. : Intelligence Officer Was Stationed in Greece

The State Department said Friday that a Soviet KGB colonel, accompanied by his 7-year-old son and a female friend, has defected and is in the United States.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman confirmed reports that Viktor Gundarev, accompanied by the two others, had defected in Athens.

In response to a question, Redman read a statement to reporters saying that the three are in the United States and identifying Gundarev as a colonel in the Soviet KGB intelligence agency.

Requested Entry

“Viktor P. Gundarev, his 7-year-old son, Maxim, and a friend of the Gundarev family, Galina N. Gromova, requested permission from the United States government to enter the United States,” the statement said.

“They have been granted that permission and are currently in the United States. I can confirm that Gundarev was a colonel in the KGB posted in Athens at the time of his defection.”

Redman declined to comment beyond his highly unusual statement confirming the defection.

A U.S. intelligence source said that Gundarev, accompanied by the two others, had defected in Athens last weekend. The source said Gundarev is 50 years old and was working as a Soviet trade official in the Greek capital. The source also said Gromova is 30 years old.

She reportedly taught Soviet diplomats’ children part-time in Athens and was employed as Maxim Gundarev’s nurse.

United Press International reported from Athens last week that an informed source had identified Gromova as Gundarev’s mistress and said he fled to escape his wife, who had complained about her husband’s affair to Soviet Ambassador Viktor Stukalin.

The source said the ambassador asked Gundarev to contact him last Friday to discuss the problem, but the meeting never took place. Instead, Gundarev picked up his son and Gromova and headed for Apollon Palace hotel at Kavouri, a coastal resort near the American Hellinikon military base, the source said.

Used by U.S. Forces

The hotel is used exclusively by U.S. troops based in Greece and has a 24-hour armed U.S. military guard.

It is unusual for the U.S. government to officially confirm a KGB defection, as in Friday’s announcement from the State Department.

The last government confirmation of a defection was in August when the State Department, in a similarly terse announcement, confirmed reports that Vitaly Yurchenko had defected. It identified Yurchenko as a top-level KGB official.

Three months later, Yurchenko slipped away from his CIA handlers at a Washington restaurant. The Soviet Embassy produced him several days later for a dramatic news conference in which he said he had been kidnapped and drugged by CIA operatives. The State Department denied the charges but allowed him to return to Moscow.

Declines Comment

Redman declined comment on whether the Soviet Embassy had asked to see Gundarev or whether the U.S. government would allow Soviet officials to see him if they did make such a request.

Soviet Embassy spokesmen were not available for immediate comment.

A State Department official, asked on Thursday about the Gundarev case, said the U.S. Embassy in Athens called police Saturday night after employees spotted a Soviet Embassy car “circling rapidly” around the American facility.

Redman declined comment on whether that incident was related to the defection.