Vitaly Yurchenko was a KGB colonel who ostensibly defected to the United States from Italy in 1985. While being debriefed in Washington — after giving information that led to the uncovering of burned-out KGB spies Ronald Pelton and Edward Lee Howard and confirming the importance of John Walker and his son Michael — Yurchenko walked out on his CIA minder at a Washington restaurant and walked to the Soviet Embassy. The next day he held a press conference in which he claimed he'd been drugged and kidnapped by the CIA in Rome. He returned to the USSR, was restored to his KGB status and given a medal. Former CIA officer Tennent H. Bagley, in his book
The Strange Case of Vitaly Yurchenko
The Strange Case of Vitaly Yurchenko
The Strange Case of Vitaly Yurchenko
Vitaly Yurchenko was a KGB colonel who ostensibly defected to the United States from Italy in 1985. While being debriefed in Washington — after giving information that led to the uncovering of burned-out KGB spies Ronald Pelton and Edward Lee Howard and confirming the importance of John Walker and his son Michael — Yurchenko walked out on his CIA minder at a Washington restaurant and walked to the Soviet Embassy. The next day he held a press conference in which he claimed he'd been drugged and kidnapped by the CIA in Rome. He returned to the USSR, was restored to his KGB status and given a medal. Former CIA officer Tennent H. Bagley, in his book