Top Russian Spy Defects To U.S. Moscow TV Reports The Move, A Coup For Western Intelligence

A high-ranking officer in Russia’s top-secret foreign intelligence-gathering headquarters has fled to the United States, news reports said Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Oleg Morozov worked for the Foreign Intelligence Service - a successor to the Soviet KGB - at its central complex in suburban Moscow, Russia’s NTV network reported Wednesday, without citing sources.

NTV called Morozov’s move “a major success for Western intelligence forces.”

In Washington, CIA officials said they had not seen the report and could not comment on it.

A report by the weekly newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta said Morozov left Russia with his wife and son and presented himself to U.S. intelligence officers in Bern, Switzerland. They verified his identity, the report said, and then flew him to Washington on a CIA plane. The newspaper did not identify its sources.

The reports did not specify when Morozov left Russia.

It was unclear whether he spied for the CIA before his departure or just offered information after he left Russia. It was also not clear in what department Morozov worked, and what kind of access he had within the agency.

The Interfax news agency quoted Tatyana Samolis, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Intelligence Service, as refusing to comment. No one answered the phone at FIS headquarters late Wednesday.