The Foreign Ministry dismissed as “utter fabrications” charges published in the Soviet Government newspaper Izvestia that certain Jewish tourists in the USSR were serving as spies for Israel. A Ministry spokesman said the charge was a continuation of the anti-Israel “smear campaign” that has been going on in the Soviet Union for some time. Izvestia claimed yesterday that an American woman posing as a tourist was an Israeli intelligence agent sent to get secret information about Russia’s space program. It identified her as “Feiga Kroun” but did not say when she was in Russia or whether she was arrested. According to Izvestia, the woman sought information about the closed Black Sea port of Nikolayev and the space center at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, while visiting Odessa. Izvestia also accused another tourist, identified as “Mr. Dugan,” of working for Israel intelligence in Odessa. It accused Israel of recruiting tourists as spies since the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Jerusalem during the June, 1967 Six-Day War.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
