NEW SERIES: The Redefector

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spk_0 The year was 1985 and the CIA had a painful secret.

spk_0 Soviet assets who had been secretly working for the CIA had begun ominously disappearing,

spk_0 one after another after another.

spk_0 It just kept adding up and I had a guy to do a study of how long KGB offices

spk_0 survive working for a month's practical.

spk_0 One might be bad luck, but four is three too many to be a coincidence.

spk_0 And that was just the beginning.

spk_0 1985 would later become known as the year of the spy because of the sheer amount of blown

spk_0 covers, assassinations, triple agents, and espionage debacles that would unfold over the coming months.

spk_0 Operations to protect America's secrets are usually done quietly with little publicity.

spk_0 Well lately they've been making big news.

spk_0 Some of you may be wondering if the large number of spy arrests in recent weeks means that we're

spk_0 looking harder or whether there are more spies to find. What I think the answer to both questions

spk_0 is yes. As the agency was scrambling to find answers on a hot summer day in Rome,

spk_0 in walked a Soviet colonel named Vitaly Yurchenko.

spk_0 He wanted to defect to the United States immediately.

spk_0 In exchange for exfiltration to the US and total secrecy, Yurchenko would tell the Americans

spk_0 everything he knew and he knew a lot because he was the highest ranked KGB officer at that time

spk_0 ever to defect. In fact, he knew about a CIA mole, a man who would have been in a position to

spk_0 know about all the covers that had just been blown. But the question was, was he telling the truth?

spk_0 Do you think Vitaly Yurchenko was a plant?

spk_0 No, no, no, I'm on a percent sure he wasn't. On a percent.

spk_0 To me, the circumstandsial evidence continues to weigh in the direction that this was a

spk_0 Soviet operation. And he was a true deal. He wasn't an advice plant. He came on his own. I'm

spk_0 definite about it. The more I reported, the more it was impossible to know which narrative was true.

spk_0 He had no idea what had happened, which story was true. He said you could argue it round or you

spk_0 could argue it flat. The theory that I subscribed to is that he was a plant that was all orchestrated by

spk_0 KGB headquarters. My name is Julie Kohn. Join me as I finally discover the truth behind the

spk_0 Vitaly Yurchenko mystery on the redephector.

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