Judas from the KGB

Within the past 12 years colleagues of the general were absolutely sure that Oleg Kalugin was a traitor
Russia's Foreign Counterintelligence Service (SVR) thinks that former KGB general Oleg Kalugin received American citizenship in exchange for high treason. The head of the SVR press-bureau Boris Labusov said on Wednesday that Kalugin's American citizenship was even worse than the 30 piece of silver for which Judas betrayed Christ.

On June 2002, the Moscow City Court sentenced Oleg Kalugin in his absence to 15 years of imprisonment. The Court decided that the charges of high treason against the general in accordance with the clause 275 of the RF Criminal Code were proven. The Court determined that past and present activity of the general "caused damage to Russia's national security" as Kalugin revealed state secrets to the USA.
 
Within the past 12 years colleagues of the general were absolutely sure that Oleg Kalugin was a traitor, but they suspected him of betrayal since the end of the 1970s. There was no direct evidence proving that the general was a traitor, but several suspicious coincidences suggested this idea. After contacting Oleg Kalugin, Czech citizen Karl Koecher illegally staying in America was detained there. One more failure was connected with the name of Oleg Kalugin when captain Artamonov escaped to Sweden with his lover while his destroyer was in the port of Gdansk.  Later the man obtained quick promotion in the CIA. Because of the romantic reason of the escape and the good reputation of the young officer, the Soviet KGB made attempts to persuade him to cooperate with the KGB. When it became clear that Artamonov was playing games with the KGB, it was decided to kidnap him at a conspiratorial meeting in Vienna and bring him back to the Soviet Union. The CIA learnt about the intention from some unknown sources. The Soviet intelligence officers are sure that Artamonov was poisoned right before the meeting as the man died in 5 hours. Oleg Kalugin was one of the leaders of that operation.

At the end of the 1980s when Oleg Kalugin was fired from the KGB he started a different policy. In August 1990 he met with the electorate in Kuban and told that cryptographer Johnnie Walker supplied the KGB with secret information, about one million of messages over 17 years. After that the "spy of the century", who was in prison in the USA at that time, had his term increased.
 
Kalugin's revelations were given orally and in a written form. He informed about dozens of US planes downed over Vietnam; he said he had interrogated them personally.  The KGB general revealed the ciphers and channels the intelligence service used for delivery of weapons, ammunition and documents to Western Europe. He unveiled details of the KGB's cooperation with the intelligence of socialist countries.

Having exhausted all allowed resources in Russia, in 1995 Oleg Kalugin concluded a contract with Intercon International, a consulting firm based in Washington, DC; according to the contract Kalugin became the senior consultant of a TV series on the struggle between the KGB and the CIA. He left for the USA using a work permit, settled in a suburb of Washington and started his activity. He wrote the books "My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West", "The First Directorate" and others. The publication of the memoirs entailed several arrests of American, Canadian, Australian citizens on charges of espionage in favor of the USSR. There is every reason to suppose that Oleg Kalugin was connected with the arrests of the Russian SVR agents Aldrich Ames, Edwin Moore, Robert Hansen and Robert Lipka (the people were arrested in the USA). In June 2001 Oleg Kalugin was a witness at a trial on former US army colonel George Trofimoff. On the basis of Kalugin's testimony the retired US army reserve colonel was found guilty of espionage in favor of the USSR and the Russian Federation; the man was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Western sponsors of Kalugin were not that generous and the former KGB general had to start small-scale and medium-sized business. Together with CIA ex-director William Colby he created a computer game called Spy Craft. The names of the game authors are mentioned in the titers. What is more, Oleg Kalugin often worked as a guide about Washington sites connected with espionage.