ESPIONAGE: Homeward Bound

• Share

At the rate KGB agents are flowing back to the motherland, Moscow's perennial housing shortage may soon become critical. Last month Oleg Lyalin, a member of the Soviet trade mission in London, exposed the espionage activities that sent 105 Russian officials scurrying home from Britain. Last week Anatole Chebotarev, a reputed friend of Lyalin's and a member of the Soviet trade mission in Brussels, who had been missing for five days, surfaced in England. He gave Western intelligence services a complete list of KGB and GRU (special military espionage) agents operating out of Brussels. NATO circles have reportedly confirmed that Chebotarev and his former co-workers were snooping around NATO in Brussels and the headquarters of SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe) in Casteau, near Mons. It is thought that Soviet espionage activities in Brunssum, The Netherlands, where AFCENT (Allied Forces in Central Europe) is based, will also be revealed as a result of Chebotarev's defection.