Soviets Seize, Free Canada Newsman’s Interpreter; Attempt at a ‘Setup’ Seen

A Canadian Broadcasting Corp. correspondent said today that police detained his official Soviet interpreter when she met with a Soviet man who had requested a meeting with a Canadian reporter.

CBC correspondent Michael McIvor said he had sent his interpreter, Irina Melnikova, to escort the Soviet man into the CBC office. He said she was held at a police station for 30 to 40 minutes and questioned.

“When she came back, she was really and truly frightened,” McIvor said.

Attempt at ‘Setup’

He said the incident appeared to have been an attempt to “set me up.”

“I don’t have any idea why. This comes at a really weird time. Not only after Daniloff, but after (Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A.) Shevardnadze had by all appearances a very successful visit to Canada,” he said.

“Maybe they’re sending out the signal that the Daniloff case may be over, but don’t get the idea that it’s any looser out there,” McIvor said.

He was referring to the Aug. 30 arrest of American reporter Nicholas Daniloff on spy charges. Daniloff left the Soviet Union on Monday under a superpower deal that also freed Gennady F. Zakharov, a Soviet arrested in New York on espionage charges.

McIvor said a Canadian diplomat told him Thursday that a Soviet man had called the embassy seeking the telephone number of a Canadian reporter. He said he gave his permission for the diplomat to give the man his office phone number.

The Soviet man called today, but refused to identify himself or say what he wanted to talk about, McIvor said. He said he told the man he could come to the CBC office.

All foreigners live in compounds guarded by police who bar unescorted Soviets, so McIvor said he sent Melnikova down to meet the man.

Red ID Card

“She went outside and he was standing across the street,” McIvor said. “They started to walk back and had just crossed the street when they were approached very fast by men in plainclothes who flashed a red ID card and said they were from the Criminal Investigation Division.”

The plainclothes men put Melnikova and the Soviet into a black sedan and drove them to a nearby police station, McIvor said.

He said Melnikova told him she identified herself as a Soviet citizen and that one of the plainclothesmen asked her, “Haven’t you heard about the Daniloff case?”

Like all Soviet staff of Western news offices, Melnikova works for the government agency UPDK. She did not have any identification with her, but the police eventually released her, McIvor said.