Soviet Spying on Capitol Hill

Posing as diplomats, embassy officials and newsmen, Soviet intelligence agents have been conducting a determined effort to get classified information on Capitol Hill by bribing or compromising staff members in key positions. TIME has learned that in more than a dozen cases in the last decade or so the FBI has stepped in to "control" the relationship, fearing a staffer might begin giving out restricted data. In some cases, the FBI has used the aide as a double agent, allowing him to pass on worthless material while actually spying on the Soviet officials. To date, the FBI says, it has found no staffer who has given unauthorized information to the Russians.

Charming Official. The Soviet KGB agents--who constitute an estimated 40% of the embassy staff in Washington --concentrate on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, which receive secret testimony and intelligence briefings. The agents apparently make no real efforts to suborn the Senators or Congressmen on the committees. "The Soviets may be a bit clumsy, but they aren't fools," says an intelligence source. "They know that a Congressman or a Senator is pretty much a prisoner of his staff. What he knows, the staff knows, and it's easier to get the information from the staff."

The names of aides who are now double agents, or who have been systematically wooed by the Kremlin, are being kept under tight security. But one case has been uncovered that illustrates how the Soviets work the halls of Congress. James Kappus, 29, a printing consultant in Largo, Md., became an assistant to Wisconsin Congressman Alvin E. O'Konski in 1967. At the time, O'Konski, who retired from Congress in 1973, was a member of the House Armed Services Committee. Kappus recalls how he met a charming Soviet embassy official named Boris A. Sedov and was soon being invited to Soviet embassy parties. Kappus was genuinely dazzled. "I was just a kid," says he, "two years out of Eau Claire, Wis., and there I was--waiting to be introduced to the ambassador."

In ways that remain a mystery to Kappus, the FBI learned about his friendship with Sedov. With O'Konski's approval, the bureau began supervising Kappus' contacts with the Russian, who was actually a KGB spy. At Sedov's suggestion, Kappus first wrote a story for a Soviet newspaper about presidential candidates for the 1968 election. He was paid only $20, but in the months that followed, Kappus received some $2,000 more for passing on unclassified information that had first been screened by the FBI. "We both knew that I had been 'compromised,' " says Kappus. "Sedov didn't talk about it and neither did I, but we both understood it."

Sedov began pressing Kappus for classified information. Where did O'Konski keep classified documents? Could Kappus get at them? When Kappus hesitated, Sedov said, "You know, I helped you out when things were tough."

Kappus insists that he never did turn over any secret material to Sedov. Their relationship ended in 1970 when Kappus went into the Army and the Russian was called home.

Another Capitol Hill aide who says he worked as a double agent is Kenneth R. Tolliver, 42, now an advertising man in Greenville, Miss. In 1966, Tolliver joined the staff of Mississippi's Senator James O. Eastland, a staunch friend of the Pentagon. Although U.S. intelligence sources cast doubt on some parts of his story, Tolliver says he was recruited by the Soviets in 1968 and--with the approval of the FBI--began providing information. He also performed chores for the Russians, such as getting labor permits and Social Security cards for "illegals"--a term for spies. That same year, after learning about Tolliver's activities, Eastland dropped him from his staff. The former aide claims he continued to work as a double agent until 1974. In all, Tolliver says, he received nearly $20,000 from the Russians, which he turned over to the FBI.

Long Harangues. In the past two years, the Soviets have substantially increased their efforts to penetrate Congress. They are particularly anxious to tap the committee that is expected to be created to oversee U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the FBI.

The Soviet intelligence squad on Capitol Hill is at least 15 strong. One of the prominent members is Yuri Barsakov, whose coyer is the Izvestia News Agency. Says a Senate aide: "Barsakov is right out of central casting. He's a heavy guy with bushy eyebrows. He offers tips on Soviet affairs, hoping to swap that dope for information." Another well-known operator is Igor Bubnov, an embassy counselor, who is described by a Senate staffer as "impossible--pompous and arrogant" and given to delivering long harangues in defense of his country. Other members of the Soviet squad: Anatoly I. Davydov, second secretary at the embassy; Victor F. Isakov, counselor; Vladimir A. Vikoulov, attache; Vadim Kuznetsov, an embassy official; Stanislov Kondrahov, an Izvestia reporter; Ikav Zavrazhnov and Alexander Kokorev, both embassy secretaries; Andre Kokoshin, librarian; Anotole Kotov, attache; and Embassy Officials Alexander Ereskovsky, Vladimir Trifonof, Alexander Rozanov and Valeri Ivanov.

A great deal of the Soviet effort in Congress takes place in the open--and is legal. Agents cover congressional hearings and collect reports and printed matter of all kinds. Higher-level Soviet agents work, legitimately and publicly, like regular lobbyists, trying to sell Congressmen and Senators the Soviet position on crucial strategic matters.

Last fall, after hearing Vice President Nelson Rockefeller discuss the subject with concern, Senator Barry Goldwater told newsmen that Soviet agents had infiltrated the offices of seven Senators. In the ensuing furor, 52 Congressmen endorsed a letter asking Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, to look into the charges. Church, in turn, asked the FBI to investigate.

On Oct. 30, just two days after he got the request, FBI Director Clarence Kelley issued a report confirming that the KGB had tried to reach people who could provide sensitive information. But the report concluded there was no information indicating that "Soviet KGB officers have infiltrated any congressional staffs." On the side, Kelley gave Church a still-secret report on Soviet activities that is said to contain material about the cases in which the bureau "doubled" (turned into double agents) the KGB'S congressional contacts.

Church, however, ignored the secret report. Preoccupied with his own investigation of U.S. intelligence operations, he seized upon the other report from Kelley to announce that the "allegations" about Soviet spying had been "put to rest." His committee did not even discuss the Soviet electronic "bug" that fell out of a chair in the House Foreign Affairs Committee room in 1973.

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