The Impasse Ends: The Swap : Zakharov Pleads No Contest and Heads for Home Soon After

Soviet U.N. employee Gennady F. Zakharov appeared in court for just four minutes Tuesday, pleaded no contest to three counts of spying, was ordered out of the country and left for Moscow hours later on a Soviet airliner.

The swift, well-scripted disposition of the case was part of a complex arrangement resolving a month’s impasse that had threatened to block a superpower summit.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph M. McLaughlin in Brooklyn sentenced Zakharov to five years of probation and told him not to come back to the United States during that time.

“It is a condition of probation that the defendant depart the United States within 24 hours and not return to the United States for the entire period of probation,” McLaughlin said as Zakharov stood before him in a gray pin-striped suit.

The release of the 39-year-old Soviet spy suspect came only a day after the Soviet Union freed American reporter Nicholas Daniloff, who had been held on espionage charges in what U.S. officials called a setup to retaliate for Zakharov’s arrest.

Zakharov traveled by car to Dulles International Airport in suburban Virginia and departed aboard a Soviet Aeroflot plane less than an hour before Daniloff was to arrive at Dulles.

As he left the courtroom, the Soviet citizen was asked how he felt. “Great,” he replied with a broad grin.

When his car paused at a red light two blocks from the Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, Zakharov rolled down the window and said he likes the American people, but was happy to be going home.

“I am not a spy,” he insisted.

Later at Dulles Airport, Zakharov repeated that he is not a Soviet agent. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “I am grateful to the Soviet Union for getting me out.

“I hope to come back to this country in five years,” he said.

Questioned Closely

Despite his assurances in court that he understood, Zakharov said at the airport that he “didn’t understand the procedure” involved in his no contest plea.

Before Zakharov pleaded nolo contendere, or no contest, in open court, he was questioned closely by McLaughlin in the judge’s chambers. The transcript of that session was sealed at the request of Zakharov’s New York lawyer, Martin Popper, but later was made public when the judge agreed to motions by lawyers for The Times and other publications.

In his chambers, McLaughlin stressed to Zakharov that a plea of no contest would mean he was giving up his constitutional rights to a trial and an appeal.

“Do you understand that?” the judge asked.

“Yes, I do,” Zakharov replied.

“Are you ready to plead at this time?” McLaughlin asked.

“Nolo contendere, of course,” Zakharov replied.

Zakharov said he was not under the care of a physician or a psychiatrist and was entering his plea voluntarily, of his own free will.

“Has anyone threatened you or forced you to plead guilty?” McLaughlin then asked.

“No,” Zakharov said.

Posed Unique Problems

Andrew J. Maloney, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, scoffed at Zakharov’s repeated statements that he is not a spy. “We thought we had a strong case. We thought we’d have a conviction if we went to trial,” Maloney said.

The prosecutor said that Zakharov had posed particular problems for the U.S. counterintelligence community. Traditionally, Soviet citizens assigned to the United Nations who have been caught committing espionage have held diplomatic immunity. But, Maloney charged, the Soviet Union changed the rules by using Zakharov, a Soviet physicist assigned to the U.N. Secretariat who did not hold immunity.

“If they use people not covered by diplomatic immunity, we will arrest them,” the U.S. attorney said. “ . . . He was outside the rules of the game. It was broadening the problems for the counterintelligence community. I’m satisfied the interests of the United States were served here.

“He was out of the mainstream of the way they operate,” Maloney continued. “If we ignore that kind of activity, we overburden our national security people.”

Zakharov, a former senior official of the Soviet State Committee for Science and Technology, was arrested Aug. 23 by FBI agents after he allegedly paid $1,000 to an FBI informant for military secrets. A week later, Daniloff, a U.S. News & World Report correspondent in Moscow, was arrested and accused of espionage, setting off the superpower confrontation.

No Admission of Guilt

In open court, McLaughlin turned to Zakharov’s lawyer.

“I understand Mr. Popper has an application to make,” he said.

“The defendant asks to enter a plea of nolo contendere on all counts,” Popper told the court. Under such a plea, a defendant in a criminal case declares he will not make a defense and does not admit guilt, but leaves himself open to penalty as in a conviction.

“The government has no objection,” prosecutor Maloney said of the plea.

For Zakharov to be given probation, it was necessary for the government to waive sentence on the espionage charges, which carry a possible penalty of life in prison. Without such a waiver, Maloney explained, the judge would not have been able to free Zakharov. The third count of receiving documents pertaining to national defense carried a potential 10-year prison sentence.