World Notes Diplomacy

The tale sounded like a John le Carre thriller, and with good reason: the main character is believed to have been the model for the novelist's Karla, the fabled communist spy master. Markus Wolf, former chief of the foreign intelligence arm of Stasi, East Germany's dreaded secret police, emerged in Vienna last week, where he had been secretly living since Aug. 30. He applied for political asylum in Austria -- a request that was promptly denied. The wily spy chief, who is wanted in Germany on espionage charges, is currently free on appeal.

Wolf fled to the Soviet Union shortly before German unification last October. In the aftermath of the failed Soviet coup, he apparently feared that the reformers now in power in Moscow would hand him over to Germany. Though Austria is expected to deny Wolf's appeal, it cannot deport him to his homeland; international law protects him against extradition for political crimes. So where will he go? The Soviet Union, which has already antagonized Germany by harboring former East German leader Erich Honecker, is unlikely to want him back. Wolf says his own choice would be Germany. But coming in from the cold and staying free might be an objective out of reach even for Karla.