Tapes tell tale of search for a spy

Jurors listen to secretly recorded talks between an espionage suspect and an undercover FBI agent.

By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 12, 2001

Dimitry Droujinski was an undercover FBI agent fluent in four languages and skilled in gaining the trust of strangers.

Beginning in 1997, his assignment was to build a case against George Trofimoff, a retired Army Reserve colonel accused of spying for the Russians for 25 years.

For more than a year and a half, Droujinski chiseled away at Trofimoff, posing as a concerned Russian diplomat and KGB officer named Igor seeking Trofimoff's help.

Nineteen months after their initial communication, Trofimoff met Droujinski face to face for the first time at a Tampa hotel.

The result was more than six hours worth of secretly videotaped conversations now being played for a jury in the trial against 74-year-old Trofimoff, the highest ranking U.S. military officer ever charged with espionage.

Monday, a jury watched the first half-hour of the encounter between the men in which Trofimoff tells Droujinski of meeting with KGB agents, his arrest in 1994 by German officials and the confiscation of his prized cameras.

Prosecutors have accused Trofimoff of photographing more than 50,000 pages of classified documents for the KGB.

The jury also listened to hours of taped telephone conversations in which Trofimoff first rejects Droujinski, constantly pleading to be left alone, but then eventually warms up to him, calling him "Igorek," an affectionate play on his name.

Jurors heard from Droujinski himself as he recalled the relationship he developed with Trofimoff, laying out the deliberate process in which the FBI flushes out suspected spies.

Droujinski's first communication with Trofimoff came in a letter dated July 10, 1997, and delivered to Trofimoff's Melbourne home on Patriot Drive.

It opens with "Dear Friend" and contains passages such as "We urgently need to meet with you" and instructs him to call a phone number. It is signed, "Your old friends."

Trofimoff does not call, so Droujinski calls him at home.

Droujinski, speaking English with a Russian accent, identifies himself as Igor Galkin, a KGB officer and official from the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C.

"I don't know what this is all about," Trofimoff says in the tape.

Droujinski is vague, saying he needs help with an official project with the Soviet Embassy.

"I was in the U.S. Army," Trofimoff responds. "I don't have anything to do with it. . . . I don't want to have anything to do with this at all."

For most of the taped conversation, Trofimoff begs Droujinski to never contact him again, saying he is old and a diabetic with high blood pressure.

"Any kind of contact for me is suicide," he says.

Droujinski then tells Trofimoff that an analyst working at KGB headquarters has disappeared, and so have files that Trofimoff provided to the KGB. Droujinski says he fears that Trofimoff is in danger.

Trofimoff says he will swear on a stack of Bibles that he did nothing wrong. After his arrest in 1994, German officials released him because they were not able to substantiate the espionage charges and ran into Germany's five-year statute of limitations.

Again, Trofimoff begs to be left alone, declining Droujinski's offer for financial assistance.

Two months later, the FBI sends another letter to Trofimoff, this time asking for help in replacing the files that were "lost" with the missing analyst.

On Feb. 4, 1998, Droujinski calls Trofimoff.

"I think this is all a big mistake," he is heard on the tape telling Droujinski, who he thinks is Igor.

Again he pleads with Droujinski to stop bothering him. Droujinski inquires about his health.

The FBI sends Trofimoff another letter in August 1998 and includes a photograph of a KGB agent. Droujinski calls a few weeks later. Trofimoff denies knowing the agent in the picture. During the taped conversation, they talk about his wife, his schooling and his years as the top U.S. employee at the Joint Interrogation Center in Nuremberg, where he interviewed Soviet bloc defectors and refugees.

Trofimoff, almost giddy, speaks Russian at times, saying he hasn't had the opportunity to use it in awhile. He calls Droujinski "Igorek." He agrees to meet with Droujinski.

On Feb, 24, 1999, Trofimoff meets Droujinski in a Tampa hotel room that had been wired by the FBI.

Over coffee, Trofimoff talks about photography and brags about his telescopic lenses and use of Kodak film. He discusses his childhood, his wives and his arrest.

The trial continues today, with Trofimoff expected to acknowledge a lifetime of spying on the videotape, prosecutors said.

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