Soviet U.N. Aide Indicted in Espionage

A federal grand jury today indicted U.N. employee Gennady F. Zakharov on espionage charges, alleging that he tried to buy classified military secrets for the Soviet Union.

The indictment, returned by the grand jury after an hourlong meeting, charged Zakharov with conspiracy, obtaining classified documents and trying to communicate the material to a foreign government, charges drawn from the espionage section of the U.S. Code.

If convicted of the most serious count, trying to pass the information to a foreign power, he faces life imprisonment.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Joseph M. McLaughlin, but no arraignment was immediately scheduled, said Assistant U.S. Atty. John Gallagher.

“Protecting the national security of the United States is among the most fundamental responsibilities of the federal government. No crime is more serious than compromising that security,” Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said in a statement released after the indictment.

Ambassador’s Assurances

Zakharov was held without bail, as he had been since his arrest in a subway station Aug. 23. If he had not been indicted today, the government would have been forced to produce new evidence or release him, said a spokesman for U.S. Atty. Andrew Maloney.

Zakharov was ordered detained despite assurances from Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin that he would appear for all court dates if released to the ambassador’s custody.

There has been speculation that Zakharov’s arrest led the Soviets to arrest Nicholas Daniloff, Moscow reporter for U.S. News & World Report, on spy charges.

There has been some discussion of an agreement to release Zakharov into the hands of Dubinin pending his trial if Daniloff was released, but U.S. officials have rejected a swap of the men, arguing that Daniloff is innocent and that the charges against him were trumped up.

Asked whether the juxtaposition of the two cases led to special negotiations between the Justice and State departments, Ehor O. E. Kotlarchuk, trial attorney for the Justice Department’s internal security section, said, “We followed normal procedure for an espionage case.”

$1,000 for Documents

The FBI says Zakharov, 39, was arrested after he allegedly gave an employee of a defense subcontractor $1,000 for classified documents on military jet engines.

The employee was a confidential informant who went to the FBI after Zakharov allegedly tried to recruit him for spy activities in 1983.

The indictment charged that Zakharov had a written agreement to obtain U.S. secrets in exchange for money with the informant, identified only with the code name “Birg” in the indictment.

Zakharov, once a senior officer for the U.S.S.R. State Committee for Science and Technology, worked as a scientific affairs officer assigned to the Center for Science and Technology for Development at the U.N. Secretariat in New York at the time of his arrest.