FBI Says Spies Were at Arts Fest

Soviet spies, using the guise of stagehands at the Soviet arts festival, accompanied performers and tried to collect information, an FBI agent said Tuesday.

“KGB intelligence officers came to San Diego in connection with the arts festival,” said FBI Special Agent Gary M. Laturno. “Their mission is to penetrate San Diego.”

Of the 700 Soviets who attended the 22-day festival last fall, 300 were part of the festival, 200 were members of the Red Army Chorus and 200 were “scientists or Soviet citizens,” said Laturno, who would not say how many were spies with the KGB, which is the Soviet equivalent of the American CIA.

Amid the festival’s hullabaloo, the agents served two purposes: They monitored performers to make sure none defected, and they acted as intelligence officers, gathering information and developing contacts, Laturno said. Some acted as support personnel for Soviet performers, but the performers themselves were not spies, he said.

The Soviets are mainly interested in military technology and economic information or technology that would assist in developing industry and agriculture, he said.

“We have no knowledge that they were successful in obtaining classified or embargoed technology,” said Laturno, who added that he does not believe that agents expected to obtain information on this excursion to San Diego. Instead, he said, it’s more likely that agents were trying to form fledgling relationships with residents that might one day yield valuable information.

“Look at some of the espionage cases in the last 10 years. The Soviets are very patient,” Laturno said. “It may take years to develop somebody before the person is furnishing classified information.”

Just before the festival opened Oct. 21, the FBI held a press conference to warn residents that spies might prowl the city, which is home to 500 Department of Defense contractors and one-third of the U. S. Navy. City officials groaned. After working feverishly to set up the festival and garner publicity, this was not the type of spotlight they had desired.

“In retrospect, the timing may not have been the best, but it fortunately really didn’t dampen the spirits of participants or the public,” said mayoral spokesman Paul Downey, in an interview earlier this month.

The sting of the FBI officials’ warnings was widespread. Some critics derided the agency for embracing a Cold War mentality; others said it cast a shadow upon international relations. Soviet press attache Sergei Aivazian, in San Francisco, said at the time that the FBI’s edict placed “a damper on Soviet-American relations.”

But, for Federal Bureau of Investigation officers, the festival signaled the first time that Soviet officials were allowed an unrestricted visit to San Diego. Soviet officials are allowed in three cities: New York, Washington and San Francisco, where they maintain an embassy and consuls, Laturno said. Those officials are not permitted to travel more than 30 miles from each city, he said.

“We know one-third of the officers assigned to those establishments are intelligence officers, and they are restricted in their travels,” Laturno said. The festival meant that they were allowed to visit San Diego for the first time.

And the festival will probably not be the last time--a Soviet trade show, sponsored by the U.S.S.R. Chamber of Commerce, is scheduled this spring.

“If you look at the leadership of the Chamber in Moscow, you find that it is made up of KGB intelligence officers,” Laturno said.