Ogorodnikova’s Eye on Spy Swap, Prosecutor Hints

Accusing Svetlana Ogorodnikova of protecting Soviet KGB agents operating in the United States, a federal prosecutor suggested Tuesday that the convicted Soviet spy has tailored her testimony in the Richard W. Miller espionage retrial to qualify as part of a possible future spy swap with the Soviet Union.

In a barrage of questions that largely went unanswered by Ogorodnikova, Assistant U.S. Atty. Russell Hayman cited a spy trade as one of many possible motives why Ogorodnikova has minimized her links to KGB officials during 11 days of testimony.

“In your testimony at this trial, if you identified any KGB officers at the Soviet Consulate (in San Francisco) your government would not be happy, would they?” Hayman asked as he concluded a four-day cross-examination of Ogorodnikova, who was sentenced last June to an 18-year prison term after pleading guilty to espionage conspiracy.

Speaks in Russian

“I do not understand. Can you explain me?” Ogorodnikova replied, speaking in Russian through an interpreter.

“Have you revealed the identity of a single KGB officer in the United States?” Hayman continued.

“Could the judge explain it to me? I really don’t understand. He’s asking me about the KGB in America?” Ogorodnikova said, turning to U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon and asking him to help her interpret the question.

“What don’t you understand?” Kenyon answered.

“You are aware that Soviet spies are sometimes traded and can go back to the Soviet Union, aren’t you?” Hayman asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I’ve read about it.”

“You’re also aware your government will never trade anyone for you if they are displeased with your testimony in this case, aren’t you?” Hayman continued.

“Can you explain?” she again asked.

“I’ll move on,” Hayman responded.

Continuing to pepper the 35-year-old Russian emigre with questions about her motives, Hayman also suggested that she might be trying to protect her 14-year-old son, Matvei, who is in the Soviet Union, from reprisals and attempting to help her husband, Nikolai, now serving an eight-year prison term, win a new trial.

“They would never do anything to kids,” Ogorodnikova said.

“You and your husband pleaded guilty to conspiring with Mr. Miller (to pass secret FBI documents to the Soviet Union) didn’t you?” Hayman said.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Ogorodnikova answered.

“You are aware, are you not, that your husband has moved to withdraw his guilty plea?” the prosecutor continued.

“First I didn’t know. Later I found out,” she said.

“And you know if Miller is acquitted by this jury it means he did not conspire with your husband, don’t you?”

“I cannot say,” she answered. “I don’t know if Miller is acquitted it will help my husband.”

While the prosecution has portrayed Ogorodnikova as a low-level KGB operative, of no major importance to the Soviet Union, U.S. intelligence sources have declined to rule out the possibility of a future spy trade involving her, noting that the Soviet Union has included “surprisingly” minor intelligence operatives in previous swaps.

Soviet Youth Camps

The Ogorodnikovs had sent their son to summer youth camps in the Soviet Union, and prosecutors have said they were planning on permanently enrolling him in a Soviet military school at the time of their arrest Oct. 2, 1984.

Within a month of their arrest, according to sources, the Ogorodnikovs decided to send Matvei to their homeland, rather than have him remain in the United States. In addition to her son, Ogorodnikova has a mother and a brother who live in a small village in the Soviet Union about 200 miles from Kiev.

As Hayman concluded his cross-examination, he also launched a strong defense of retired FBI agent John Hunt, who has been accused by Ogorodnikova of having a sexual relationship with her during a 1982 attempt to recruit her as an FBI informant.

Early in her testimony for the defense, Ogorodnikova claimed that Hunt drove her to a doctor in 1983 for an abortion and paid for the operation--stopping just short of claiming that Hunt was responsible for the pregnancy.

Confronting Ogorodnikova directly, Hayman asked:

“Is it your testimony that John Hunt made you pregnant in 1983?”

Not Accusing Anybody

“I can’t tell you, sir,” Ogorodnikova said. “I wasn’t looking who was father. I’m not accusing anybody.”

“When you told this jury that John Hunt took you to the doctor, weren’t you trying to lead this jury to believe that John Hunt made you pregnant?”

“No,” she said.

“You backed off that claim, didn’t you, when the defense suggested to you that John Hunt had had a vasectomy?” Hayman persisted.

“I did not talk to the lawyers,” she said.

Hunt, 54, is reported by sources close to the Miller case to have had a vasectomy in 1960. He testified for the prosecution against Ogorodnikova in her own trial and both of the Miller trials.

“You blame John Hunt more than anyone for the fact that you have been convicted, don’t you?” Hayman asked.

“I don’t blame anybody,” Ogorodnikova said. “I blame myself. And I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for John Hunt.”