Saga of a Decadent Defector

A Soviet playboy embarrasses the CIA

Vacation in the Caribbean. A high-priced girlfriend. A luxury Washington apartment. Onetime senior Soviet Diplomat and U.N. Under Secretary-General Arkadi Shevchenko, 48, has hardly maintained a classless society's life-style since he defected to the U.S. last spring. After being debriefed by the CIA, he has not only enjoyed freedom of movement, but also savored the fruits of capitalism. Using at least four aliases and always trailed in public by a CIA or FBI bodyguard, the Ukrainian has been frequenting Washington's bars and discos and relaxing at resorts in the Caribbean and Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. For companionship (his wife Lengina died in Moscow of an overdose of pills after his defection), Shevchenko has been leasing the close attentions of an expensive woman who was located through an escort service listed in the Washington Yellow Pages.

Last week the cover was suddenly blown off Shevchenko's pot-of-gold existence. Judy Chavez, 22, told NBC-TV that the Ukrainian was paying her $5,000 a month for her favors, had given her $14,000 for a Corvette sports car and taken her on a whirlwind vacation in the Virgin Islands. In all, claimed the kiss-and-tell brunette, she had received between $35,000 and $40,000, which Shevchenko had been given by "a high official in the CIA." Later, at a Manhattan press conference, she added that Shevchenko had paid her in sequentially numbered $100 bills. She plans to write a paperback book, to be published this spring, detailing her experiences with the defector and the kind of security arrangements the U.S. provided him.

At the U.N., diplomats began telling jokes about Chavez's tale, saying it was a CIA propaganda ploy to induce more Russians to defect. Another diplomat quipped that perhaps there should be a new bumper sticker proclaiming: DEFECTORS HAVE MORE FUN. In Washington, the CIA saw less to be amused about. Director Stansfield Turner explained that while Shevchenko "is receiving compensation from the CIA commensurate with his services and value to the U.S.," he is getting nothing for a "female companion." Jimmy Carter got into the act by observing at his press conference that sums such as those reported by Chavez "would be highly inflationary -- contrary to my [anti-inflation] policy." Indeed, Shevchenko may have been able to finance his affairs himself: he received $78,000 in severance when he quit his U.N. post and could have saved a substantial amount from his $87,000 annual U.N. salary.

Shevchenko's easy exposure has embarrassed the CIA. One of its former top officials complained that the agency handled the case "like a bunch of Keystone Kops." It is also quite possible that the CIA has been relatively lax with Shevchenko because he has been far less valuable as an intelligence source than had been anticipated. Although one of the highest-ranking Soviets ever to defect, he had little knowledge of the inner workings of current Soviet policies or intelligence operations. His reputation at the U.N. for heavy drinking and a weakness for shapely women may have led the Kremlin to cut his access to sensitive information long ago. It is even possible that he decided to defect because he feared that he was about to be recalled to Moscow, where he no longer would be able to pursue the self-indulgent life to which he had become accustomed. Chavez's revelations, however, will certainly require Shevchenko to abandon some of his breezy ways. He said last week that he was going underground to continue some "very serious work."

Whatever Shevchenko's current value to the U.S., the CIA must continue protecting him, if only to keep from discouraging other would-be defectors. The first step is for the CIA once again to cloak him in anonymity. Shevchenko thus has gone back into hiding to await his new identity and ponder the fact that even in the U.S. you have got to be careful about whom you tryst.

In comparison with what some Far Eastern countries pay defectors, Uncle Sam is a piker. Early this month, when a lowly antitank gunner, Corporal Kwon Chong Hun, 20, defected to Seoul from North Korea, he was celebrated as an "antiCommunist gladiator" and given the equivalent of $20,000. Seoul also provided him with free housing and his choice of a college scholarship or free farm land. He received several job offers. An association of Seoul businessmen whose ancestors came from Kwon's home province is trying to find him a bride. Observes Kwon, understandably: "My decision to defect has not been a mistake."

Inspired by its success with Kwon, the South Korean government has issued a price list for defectors from the North: from $10,300 for a private to $103,000 for a general. Those who bring military hardware along with them qualify for huge bonuses: Seoul offers $5.7 million for a North Korean warship and $1 million for an aircraft, but only $60 for a carbine. On top of the bonuses, Seoul promises to take care of defectors for the rest of their lives.

Meanwhile, North Korea recently awarded $70,000 each to two defecting civilian employees of the South Korean army and gave them a heroes' welcome.

China and Taiwan employ the same system in competing for defectors. Prices in Taiwan for Communist pilots range from 6,000 taels of gold (worth about $900,000) for a defector flying a late-model TU-16 bomber to 500 taels (about $75,000) for a pilot with an obsolete cargo aircraft. So far, four pilots have qualified for rewards, the latest in July 1977. Mainland China offers higher prices -- up to 7,000 taels (about $1,050,000) for a Nationalist pilot in a Phantom fighter -- but so far there have been no takers.

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