Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990                   TAG: 9003032691
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

DEFECTOR RECOUNTWS KGB SPYING

The defector, Victor I. Sheymov, who spent a decade in hiding, spoke at a news conference during which he asserted among other claims that Soviet spies had thoroughly penetrated the French government, failed to recruit many Israelis and hatched a plot that culminated in the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II.

None of the claims by Sheymov, who said he was seeking to publish a book about his experiences, could be independently verified.

The CIA declined to comment on his statements about the pope and the State Department.

In the past, however, U.S. intelligence officials have cast doubt on claims of hard evidence that the Soviet Union engineered the attempt on the pope's life.

Sheymov's assertions about the assassination plot were reported Friday in The Washington Post.

Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that Sheymov had worked in several KGB positions and defected in 1980.

Sheymov, who reached the rank of KGB major, said Friday that he had decided to abandon his secret identity in part to educate the public about the Soviet spy services and communism.

For the past 10 years, he said, he has lived under an assumed name in the United States, working at times as a consultant to the U.S. government on matters he did not disclose.

Sheymov, 43, said he joined the KGB in 1971. He said that he first seriously considered defecting in 1979 when, on a visit to Poland, he saw a message from the former head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, demanding information on "how to get physically close" to Pope John Paul II.

"In the KGB slang, it was clearly understood that when you say physically close, there was only one reason to get close - to assassinate him," he said.

Sheymov said he believes it is "absolutely clear" the Soviet Union was responsible for the attempt on the pope's life, but that he could not prove this with facts.

Pope John Paul II was shot in 1981 by a Turkish man who implicated Bulgaria, then a Soviet client state, in a plot.

Three Bulgarian government officials were charged, but the charges were dismissed for lack of conclusive proof.

Sheymov also said Friday that during his time at the KGB, the spy service maintained "two sources in the State Department" who supplied "huge State Department documents, outlines of positions" on arms control and other matters.

He did not describe them further.

Sheymov also said KGB agents with double identities were well placed in the French government, and that the KGB once hoped to make Israel its platform for Middle East espionage by recruiting Soviet Jewish emigres to work undercover.

The results were disappointing, he said, because emigres refused to work for the Soviets once they reached Israel.