KGB found paradise in the US

Washington (AFP) - Soviet spies sent to the United States were mostly concerned with making money and finding ways to stay as long as possible in the 'consumer paradise', a former KGB agent said in an interview in the Washington Post. Youri Shvets, who posed as a journalist from the Tass news agency between 1985 and 1987, described the KGB in Washington as an inept bureaucracy easily penetrated by US counter-intelligence. Mr Shvets also named two KGB officers, Valery Martynov and Serguei Moterin, who co-operated with US officials and were executed by the Soviet military.

At the time of his stay in Washington, he said, the Soviet agents were obsessed with the prospect of a US nuclear attack. KGB staff sat up late at night watching the windows of the State Department and Pentagon; if more lights than usual were burning, it could mean a surprise attack was pending, Mr Shvets said. Blood supplies were also monitored in case they signalled preparations for a nuclear strike.