The case of Vladimir Askenazy - For more details on a high profile defection and debriefing, we can look to the case of Vladimir Askenazy, the most famed Classical concert pianist (most recorded Classical pianist of all time), and now a citizen of Iceland. Vlad defected during Cold War times, in 1963, and was debriefed by both MI6 and the CIA in a English country manor house "somewhere, who knows." Askenazy also loved his Russia, but wanted an international career. If he had remained in Russia, he would not have been allowed to travel.
Intelligence agents in the West initially were not convinced of Askenazy's loyalties. They weren't sure, so they developed a plan. They brought in another pianist - who was also an agent, NSA - to befriend him, play music and talk. They went into the village for a pub lunch, and into London to attend a concert (heavily escorted). Finally, it was decided that Askenazy was simply not political; he just wanted to play the piano.
Before the western agents were ready to release Vlad, there were three concert engagements on his schedule in the U.S. that he would miss. The NSA pianist actually looked like Askenazy so he was sent out to perform in his stead. Later, Vlad, laughingly asked, "Was I good; did they like me." "No complaints," smiled his double, who was Frederic DeLis, my late husband--the reason I was told the details. One thing applies to every case, debriefers won't release anyone until they are sure.
We will probably need to wait a while to hear from Igor Sutyagin.
In a postscript, the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrHr2nh4xfk&feature=related talks about information gathering from "open sources." Igor Sutyagin gleaned some of his information from open sources. Undoubtedly, in 1999, Igor Sutyagin did not have IN-Q-TEL, http://www.iqt.org/ to do the information collection work"or perhaps Russian did have a version.
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