Against the backdrop of fees in the millions of dollars, the amount of several tens of thousands looks ridiculous. However, even such a modest reward for some irresponsible citizens is enough to start a dangerous game.
Criminal case against Nikolai Dmitrievich Chernov
WORKING TO CLOSE THE POWERS
In April 1963, in the United States, the FBI recruited Soviet citizen Nikolai Chernov, who at that time was working in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff. Since then, for almost thirty years, Chernov was listed as an FBI agent and from time to time leaked to the Americans valuable information about the activities of the Soviet special services.
It is curious that purely material interest was not Chernov's only motive. In the process of recruiting, the Americans managed to convince their future agent that his work for the FBI is an important condition for the mutual rapprochement of the two countries - Russia and the United States. Say, during the Second World War, our countries were friends, and then, for various reasons, they became opponents. Now, the time has come to end the Cold War and become friends and allies again.
Oddly enough, Chernov fell for such a bullshit. However, he did not forget about the remuneration either, demanding 10 thousand Soviet rubles for his services. The fee was immediately paid, and Chernov plunged headlong into espionage work.
On duty in the GRU, Chernov had access to classified documents, since, as a technical officer of the Soviet residency in the United States, he was engaged in photographing documents and processing incoming and outgoing mail. Unsurprisingly, his first major contribution to the rapprochement of the two great powers consisted in the transfer of secret writing tools used by Soviet military intelligence to the Americans.
And then off we go. By the end of Chernov's business trip to the United States, the Americans had copies of almost all the documents that passed through the GRU residency. Escorting Chernov to Moscow, the Americans gave detailed instructions to their agent, supplied him with copy paper for secret writing, cipher tables and two cameras.
In Moscow, Chernov continued to work on rapprochement between the two countries. Everything that came into his field of vision, he carefully reshoot and waited for an opportunity to forward it to his American friends. And soon such a case presented itself. In 1968 Chernov was transferred to work in the international department of the CPSU Central Committee. And in 1972 he was again sent to the United States, but already as a diplomatic courier.
Taking advantage of this, Chernov calmly smuggled across the border a huge amount of secret papers of varying degrees of importance - everything that he managed to copy over several years of work in Moscow. Moreover, in most cases Chernov did not even delve into the essence of the documents themselves - the main thing is that they be classified as "top secret".
The FBI friends were happy. However, during one of the conspiratorial meetings, they did not hesitate to show their agent a puffy dossier on him with a lot of "compromising evidence". Realizing that he was on a tight hook with the FBI, Chernov was so impressed that he washed down in black. As a result, he ended up in a psychiatric hospital and was dismissed from service. After that, for several years he roamed around various institutions, trying to get a lucrative position, but he could not get a good job.
Counterintelligence, albeit with some delay, reached Chernov in the early 1990s. In April 1991, he was arrested. And in September of the same year, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR recognized citizen Nikolai Dmitrievich Chernov as a traitor to the Motherland and, given the old age of the defendant, sentenced him to eight years in prison. By that time, Chernov was a 64-year-old man with a bunch of all sorts of diseases, of which the most harmless are stomach ulcers and disorders of the nervous system.
And the rapprochement of the two powers in the late 1980s began without Chernov's participation.
AND AGAIN VINCENT CROCKETT
In 1989, the CIA recruited Lieutenant Colonel of the GRU Vyacheslav Baranov. It happened in Bangladesh, where Baranov served since 1985.
Baranov's direct recruiter was Vincent Crockett, a career CIA officer. Fifteen years earlier, this Crockett had already recruited GRU officer Anatoly Filatov in Algeria. In 1977, in Moscow, during an attempt to transfer an espionage cache, Filatov and Crockett were detained by counterintelligence officers. Filatov, as expected, was punished by Soviet justice, and diplomat Crockett was expelled from the USSR. And now, fifteen years later, Crockett, being the first secretary of the US Embassy in the Republic of Bangladesh, and concurrently a CIA resident, again hooked a gerauchman - this time Vyacheslav Baranov.
Professional scout Vincent Crockett and his wife. Operational filming of the KGB of the USSR
Agreeing to cooperate, Baranov immediately demanded a lump sum payment of $ 25,000, as well as a monthly salary of $ 2,000. Crockett quickly agreed on all financial issues, and the collaboration began.
To begin with, Baranov (who was assigned the operational pseudonym Tony) told Crockett in detail everything he knew about the composition of the GRU and the KGB in Bangladesh, handed in the names of the residents, and revealed the details of some operations. And then, returning to Moscow, Baranov, on the instructions of the Americans, tried to find information about bacteriological preparations that were being developed in the laboratories of the GRU.
After the collapse of the USSR, Tony tried, using his connections, to move permanently to Europe. To this end, he got hold of a fake passport and agreed with the Austrian authorities on a short-stay visa. However, in August 1992, he was arrested while going through border control.
Since the secrets issued by Baranov were outdated by the time of his arrest and his actions did not cause much harm to the country's security, the traitor was sentenced to only six years in prison.
YOU ARE CALLED BY THE AMERICAN EMBASSY
On September 28, 1993, a senior researcher at one of the research institutes of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Moses Finkel, was invited to the American embassy, where he was made a very flattering offer - to become a CIA agent. Moisey Zusmanovich did not hesitate for a second: he dreamed about this all his adult life.
True, in the Soviet years, dreams remained just dreams. But after the collapse of the "evil empire" Finkel understood: his time had come. And he began to fulfill his cherished dream.
Moses Finkel in the dock
To begin with, he sent letters to his numerous relatives in the United States and Israel, in which he tearfully asked to find him a warm place over the hill. Then he began to bombard the American embassy with requests to grant him refugee status. Several of his messages went unanswered. But Finkel did not give up. And finally, the long-awaited invitation came from the embassy …
However, the main topic of conversation with the representative of the consular department, John Sutter, was not refugee status. Without much preamble, Sutter suggested that Finkel sell information that is of interest to the United States. This will allow you to earn good money, which will be useful to Finkel and his family for the subsequent carefree life in the States. And the Americans were interested in information about the latest hydroacoustic devices for Russian submarines.
Finkel's next meeting with representatives of the CIA took place on March 15, 1994 in Antwerp. There, Moisei Zusmanovich explained to John Sutter in detail everything he knew about the work of his institute in the field of hydroacoustics, after which he answered some questions in writing. Finkel estimated his services at 15 thousand dollars. Sutter promised to help.
Indeed, at the next meeting, a couple of days later, Finkel received his first spy fee. True, not 15 thousand dollars, but only a thousand. In the early 1990s, when the people in Russia rejoiced at any handout, the Americans took advantage of this and tried to save money on their agents whenever possible. But they willingly gave out promises. So Finkel Sutter promised that 15 thousand will be transferred to his personal account in the United States.
Whether Sutter kept his word or not, Moisei Zusmanovich never found out: on his return to Moscow he was arrested. And a few months later, the trial took place.
Finkel received 12 years in prison and instead of sunny California went to the Mordovian camps.
THE MYSTERY OF THE BULAVA
On May 18, 2012, at a closed session in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court, a verdict was passed on engineer Alexander Gniteev, an employee of the closed enterprise NPO Avtomatika. According to the investigation, Gniteev gave foreign intelligence some technical data on the Russian Bulava ballistic missile, for which he received a total of $ 50,000. Engineer Gniteev was sentenced to eight years in a strict regime colony for treason.
This whole story is shrouded in a dense veil of mystery. It is unclear when, where and under what circumstances an engineer from the Urals sniffed out with representatives of foreign special services. It is not even known what kind of intelligence Alexander Gniteev worked for. The details of the operation to arrest him were not disclosed either. It is only known that Gniteev's contacts with foreign spies continued for a long time, which means that over several years of his espionage career, the Ural engineer managed to transfer to the West a lot of valuable information about the latest developments in the field of domestic rocketry.
The newest Russian sea-based missile Bulava was of particular interest to foreigners. The fact is that this type of missile has hypersonic warheads that are capable of maneuvering in such a way that even the most powerful computerized missile defense systems cannot calculate their flight path.
Foreigners tried in vain to solve the mystery of the Bulava. And they would never have guessed if it were not for the citizen of Gnitev, who agreed to share some secrets known to him.
A MODEST COMPLAINT OF A MI6 AGENT
Former FSB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Litvinenko received two thousand pounds a month from his new friends from the British intelligence service MI6 after fleeing to the United Kingdom. Such data are given in a report on the "Litvinenko case" recently published in the UK.
However, working as an MI6 agent did not appear to be the main source of income for the defector. The fact is that Litvinenko, when he was an FSB officer, was not admitted to state secrets, and therefore could not interest British intelligence as a carrier of classified information. Litvinenko's tasks in England were different. The defector was used, as in his time Rezun, mainly in the ideological field.
His work is loud statements about the involvement of the FSB in the sensational terrorist acts and attempts on the life of famous politicians and businessmen, including Boris Berezovsky. The goal is quite clear: to lower the already not very favorable image of Russia in the eyes of the European man in the street below the plinth.
Russian mafia specialist Alexander Litvinenko
The British do not spare money for this. It is known, for example, that only from the Berezovsky fund, with which Litvinenko was very close, the former lieutenant colonel received four thousand pounds a month. Quite good fees were unfastened to him for exposing books. Litvinenko also actively worked as a consultant on Russian organized crime.
This topic is very popular in the West. Rumors about a powerful Russian mafia are artificially whipped up by Western intelligence services in order to create the appearance of a real threat for the average person and to knock out additional appropriations for this case. Therefore, from time to time, the intelligence services of Western countries hire as experts on the Russian mafia all sorts of dubious personalities who tell all sorts of horror stories for a decent fee.
Litvinenko is one of them. In the 1990s, before escaping to the West, he worked in the FSB Department for the development and suppression of the activities of criminal organizations (later this structure was liquidated) and had extensive connections in the Russian criminal world. This knowledge was useful to the traitor after fleeing to Great Britain.
As a consultant on the Russian mafia, Litvinenko was used not only by the British, but also by the special services of other European countries. Fees for such consultations can reach tens of thousands of dollars. Not a bad addition to the modest salary of an MI6 agent!
