Yuri Shvets

Last updated

Yuri Shvets
Юрій Швець
Born (1953-05-16) 16 May 1953 (age 71)
Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) [1]
Citizenship American
Alma mater Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University
Academy of Foreign Intelligence
Espionage activity
AllegianceFlag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union
Agency KGB
Service years1980–1990
RankMajor
Other work His YouTube channel

Yuri Borysovych Shvets [a] (born 16 May 1953) is a former Soviet intelligence officer of Ukrainian origin. He was a Major in the KGB between 1980 and 1990. From April 1985 to 1987, he was a resident spy in Washington, D.C. [2] While there, he held a cover job as a correspondent for TASS, a Soviet state-owned news agency. [3] He left the KGB in September 1990. [4]

Contents

Biography

Shvets graduated in international law from the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University (now the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia). He also graduated from the Academy of Foreign Intelligence, [5] where he purportedly studied alongside Vladimir Putin, [4] a fact that is disputed. [6]

Career in the KGB

In his book, Shvets alleges he had recruited two key sources of political intelligence — "Socrates", a former aide to President Jimmy Carter with strong ties to Greece, and his wife "Sputnitsa" (Russian : Спутница, lit.  'companion'), a journalist working in Washington. [7] Some of these details were called into question. [7] Later, on "60 Minutes", Shvets had identified Socrates as John Helmer, an Australian-born journalist, who denied being Socrates. [7]

Move to America

After publishing a book describing his exploits and ultimate falling out with the KGB, Shvets was banned from foreign travel. In 1993, he moved permanently to the United States, where he later gained citizenship. [3]

Shvets was a key source for the 2021 book American Kompromat by Craig Unger, [3] [8] which details claims that Donald Trump is a Soviet, and later Russian, asset. [9]

Involvement with Alexander Litvinenko

In 2006, Shvets emerged as a potentially key witness in the poisoning of ex-Federal Security Service officer Alexander Litvinenko. In an interview with the BBC, broadcast on 16 December 2006, Shvets said that he and Litvinenko had compiled a report investigating the activities of senior Kremlin officials on behalf of a British company looking to invest "dozens of millions of dollars" in a project in Russia. Shvets said the dossier about Sergei Ivanov was so incriminating, it was likely that Litvinenko was murdered because of it. [10] He said that Litvinenko had shown the dossier to another business associate, Andrei Lugovoi, who had worked for the FSB and had passed the dossier to his superiors in Moscow. Shvets was interviewed about it by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Litvinenko's murder. [11]

Notes

  1. ↑ Ukrainian: Юрій Борисович Швець, romanized: Yurii Borysovych Shvets; Russian: Юрий Борисович Швец, romanized: Yury Borisovich Shvets

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Putin</span> President of Russia (1999–2008, 2012–present)

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia, serving since 2012 and previously as president from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He is the longest-serving Russian or Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergei Ivanov</span> Russian politician (born 1953)

Sergei Borisovich Ivanov is a Russian senior official and politician who has been serving as the Special Presidential Envoy on the Issues of Environmental Activities, Ecology and Transport since 12 August 2016. He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)</span> Russias primary external intelligence agency

The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation or FIS RF is Russia's external intelligence agency, focusing mainly on civilian affairs. The SVR RF succeeded the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB in December 1991. The SVR has its headquarters in the Yasenevo District of Moscow with its director reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation.

Oleg Danilovich Kalugin is a former KGB general. He was during a time, head of KGB political operations in the United States and later a critic of the agency. After being convicted of spying for the West in absentia during a trial in Moscow, he remained in the US and was sworn in as a citizen on 4 August 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrey Illarionov</span> Russian economist and political scientist

Andrey Nikolayevich Illarionov is a Russian economist and former senior policy advisor to Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, from April 2000 to December 2005. Since April 2021, he is a senior fellow at the non-governmental organization Center for Security Policy, which is based out of Washington, D.C. in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikolai Patrushev</span> Russian politician and security officer (born 1951)

Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev is a Russian politician, security officer and former intelligence officer who served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia from 2008 to 2024. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008. Belonging to the siloviki faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle, Patrushev is believed to be one of the closest advisors to Putin and a leading figure behind Russia's national security affairs. He played a key role in the decisions to seize and then annex Crimea in 2014 and to invade Ukraine in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Litvinenko</span> British-naturalised Russian defector murdered in London (1962–2006)

Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organised crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he advised British intelligence and coined the term "mafia state".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yuri Shchekochikhin</span> Russian investigative journalist, writer and lawmaker

Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin was a Soviet and later Russian investigative journalist, writer, and liberal lawmaker in the Russian parliament. Shchekochikhin wrote and campaigned against the influence of organized crime and corruption. His last non-fiction book, Slaves of the KGB, was about people who worked as KGB informers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko</span> Fatal poisoning of a former FSB and KGB officer

Alexander Litvinenko was an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and its predecessor, the KGB, until he left the service and fled the country in late 2000.

Dmitry Vladimirovich Kovtun was a Russian businessman and KGB agent who was suspected to have murdered the former Russian spy and later British citizen Alexander Litvinenko in London, England. In 2021 the European Court of Human Rights found beyond reasonable doubt that Andrey Lugovoy and Kovtun had killed Litvinenko.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Ivanov</span> Russian politician and businessman

Viktor Petrovich Ivanov is a Russian politician and businessman, former KGB officer, who served in the KGB Directorate of Leningrad and its successors in 1977–1994. He was the director of The Federal Narcotics Service of Russia from 2008 until 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergey Chemezov</span> Russian oligarch and politician (born 1952)

Sergey Viktorovich Chemezov is the CEO of Rostec Corporation, a state-owned defense conglomerate. A former KGB agent and high-ranking general, Chemezov befriended Vladimir Putin when both were stationed in East Germany in the 1980s. In 2007, Putin appointed him as CEO of Rostec.

Konstantin Georgiyevich Preobrazhenskiy is a former KGB lieutenant colonel, an intelligence expert and the author of several books and numerous articles about Russian secret police organizations.

Russian espionage in the United States has occurred since at least the Cold War, and likely well before. According to the United States government, by 2007 it had reached Cold War levels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Harding</span> British journalist & writer (born 1968)

Luke Daniel Harding is a British journalist who is a foreign correspondent for The Guardian. He is known for his coverage of Russia under Vladimir Putin, WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimean speech of Vladimir Putin</span> 2014 speech by Vladimir Putin

On 18 March 2014, Russian president Vladimir Putin gave a speech to both chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in connection with the request for admission by the Crimean parliament of the republic in the Russian Federation. He spoke in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace in the Moscow Kremlin.

Christopher David Steele is a British former intelligence officer with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1987 until his retirement in 2009. He ran the Russia desk at MI6 headquarters in London between 2006 and 2009. In 2009, he co-founded Orbis Business Intelligence, a London-based private intelligence firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steele dossier</span> Political opposition research report regarding the 2016 US election

The Steele dossier, also known as the Trump–Russia dossier, is a controversial political opposition research report on the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump compiled by counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele. It was published without permission in 2017 as an unfinished 35-page compilation of "unverified, and potentially unverifiable" memos that were considered by Steele to be "raw intelligence — not established facts, but a starting point for further investigation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Volodarsky</span>

Boris Borisovich Volodarsky is an English historian, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, specialising in Intelligence History, which he has studied for almost 30 years after having moved to the West, and the history of the Spanish Civil War. He formerly served as a captain in the Spetsnaz GRU, a Russian special forces unit.

Oleg Alexandrovich Erovinkin was a Russian intelligence officer. He was a general in both the KGB and FSB. Erovinkin served as chief of staff at Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft.

References

  1. ↑ YouTube: Розмова за участю Юрія Швеця, Тараса Березовця і Пітера Залмаєва. 05.04.2022
  2. ↑ "Book Discussion on Washington Station: My Life as a KGB Spy". C-SPAN . 14 April 1995. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Smith, David (29 January 2021). "'The perfect target': Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy". The Guardian . Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  4. 1 2 Бонини, Карло (Bonini, Carlo) (19 January 1999). "Скандалы: "Путин может наказать Соединенные Штаты"" [Scandals: "Putin can punish the United States"]. Corriere della Sera (in Russian). Archived from the original on 21 July 2001. Retrieved 13 September 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) This is a Russian translation of an article originally published in Italian. The original website is a dead link.
  5. ↑ Dvali, Natalia (28 April 2015). "Сокурсник Путина, экс-разведчик КГБ: Вы серьезно думаете, что Путин, делающий подтяжку лица, развяжет ядерную войну? У него от страха ботокс потечет" [Putin's classmate, ex-KGB spy: Do you seriously think that Putin doing a facelift will unleash a nuclear war? He will have botox flow from fear]. Gordon (in Russian). Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  6. ↑ "Интервью сокурсника Путина украинскому изданию раскрыло неудобные факты из жизни главы Кремля" [An interview with Putin's classmate to a Ukrainian journal revealed uncomfortable facts from the life of the head of the Kremlin]. nv.ua (in Russian). 28 May 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Wick, Daniel L. (12 March 1995). "Another Ex-KGB Spy Spills the Beans / Yuri B. Shvets claims he recruited a former Carter adviser". SFGate. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  8. ↑ Figliuzzi, Frank (2 February 2021). "How to stop Russia from recruiting the next Trump". MSNBC .
  9. ↑ Smith, David (29 January 2021). "'The perfect target': Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy". The Guardian.
  10. ↑ Юрий Швец: Путин отмывал деньги наркокартеля. Дело Литвиненко / Видео №5., Jun 16, 2021
  11. ↑ "Litvinenko 'killed over dossier'". BBC News . 16 December 2006.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.