Ex-KGB agent details Trofimoff meeting

The retired Army colonel provided Soviets with top-secret CIA documents, the agent testifies Tuesday.

By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 20, 2001

TAMPA -- On a cool day in 1974, KGB Gen. Oleg Kalugin looked into the eyes of an American spying for the Soviets and thanked him.

That man, Kalugin told a jury on Tuesday, was George Trofimoff.

Kalugin's testimony was the most devastating so far in the federal trial of Trofimoff, a retired Army Reserve colonel and the highest ranking U.S. military officer ever charged with espionage.

Kalugin, 66, testified that he met Trofimoff on two occasions in the 1970s -- once to discuss Trofimoff's duties as an operative, the other when Trofimoff vacationed as the KGB's guest at a Crimean resort.

Kalugin, who left the KGB and now lives in America, is one of the highest ranking former KGB officers to testify in a U.S. trial. At the KGB, Kalugin had access to the spy agency's operational files -- documents so secret, he testified, that few KGB officers were given clearance to view them.

In 1974, he leafed through the operational files on an agent with the code name "Markiz" in preparation for a meeting. Kalugin set up the meeting because the KGB's top brass thought supervisors were out of touch with their spies and ordered them to make personal visits.

It was in these files that Kalugin learned "Markiz's" true name, he told federal prosecutor Laura Ingersoll.

"What was the name?" she asked.

"George Trofimoff," he replied.

Kalugin looked at Trofimoff in the courtroom and identified him as the man who provided documents to the Soviets for 25 years.

"He looks almost the same," Kalugin said. "He's lost some weight, is older; obviously, we all are."

The first time the two met, Trofimoff was 48 and serving as the civilian chief of the U.S. Army's operations at the Joint Interrogation Center in Nuremberg, West Germany. Kalugin was 40 and a rising star in the KGB.

Trofimoff, who had been recruited by the KGB in 1969, was already sneaking documents to the Soviets, Kalugin said, but the quality of his work was average, and the Soviets wanted more.

That day -- Kalugin couldn't recall the exact date, but remembered it was either late spring or early fall -- the men met in front of a museum in Bad Ischl, a resort town in Austria.

Kalugin said he recognized Trofimoff from photos and a physical description provided in advance.

"He was a big, husky man, broad shoulders, tall," Kalugin testified.

The two men exchanged greetings and then walked along a river, crossing a bridge to a small restaurant on the other side. They talked for a couple of hours in Russian, interspersed with some English, Kalugin said.

"I had no reason to doubt his integrity and honesty as a Soviet agent," Kalugin said. "I looked him in the eyes."

Kalugin told Trofimoff the KGB was concerned that his upcoming marriage to a young German nurse might limit his access to secret documents. He recalled Trofimoff's response: "When you get my age and you embrace a girl at 18, you will probably forget about security and everything else."

As they parted that day, Trofimoff promised he would try to do a better job getting documents.

"In the next few years, his productivity improved substantially," Kalugin said.

He testified that among the documents was a top-secret CIA file outlining the agency's targets and aspirations in the Soviet Union and in Soviet bloc countries from 1978 to 1981.

"It was very helpful to the Soviet military machine," Kalugin said, adding that Trofimoff's "financial reward" was raised.

Kalugin listed Trofimoff first on a list of the KGB's top operatives. The KGB also hosted Trofimoff at the resort town of Yalta in Crimea where he stayed at a hotel that served as the vacation spot for KGB officers.

Kalugin happened to be vacationing at the same time, in either September 1977 or 1978, and the men chatted for about an hour.

The KGB had arranged for Trofimoff to travel to Crimea through Moscow but made sure his visa did not reflect a stop in Russia.

In 1979, Kalugin was demoted after he defended a man held by the KGB. He retired from the KGB in 1990 and moved to the United States in 1995, taking a job with AT&T. He now gives lectures and is seeking U.S. citizenship.

He also wrote a memoir titled The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West, in which he mentioned Trofimoff's work, but did not name him.

Trofimoff's attorney, Danny Hernandez, pointed out discrepancies between Kalugin's book and his testimony.

In the memoir, Kalugin lists a different place for the first meeting and said the agent never received more money for his work.

"Testimony in court differs from fiction or memoirs," Kalugin said. "Today, I said the truth. The fact is, I met Mr. Trofimoff in Bad Ischl."

Kalugin said that it was against his "professional ethics" to divulge the names of any agents but that it was his patriotic duty to testify.

"Had I had the choice, I would never come to this court. But I am a U.S. resident, and I have to abide by the laws of this land."

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