New light shed on Petrov Affair

THE controversy over the defection of two Soviet spies to Australia has been reignited after more than half a century.

Petrova

THE controversy over the defection of two Soviet spies to Australia has been reignited after more than half a century.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Petrov and his wife Evdokia Alexeyevna Petrova made headlines worldwide in 1954 but full details about their case have never been revealed.

The Petrov Affair, as it would become known, saw the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation grant political asylum to the 47-year-old Russian in Sydney in return for his disclosure of Soviet intelligence.

At the time he was the most senior communist officer a KGB colonel to defect to the west since World War II and his shift led to the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Australia and Russia.

British intelligence documents to be released today reveal London's sideline plan to secure Petrov's defection should Australian efforts fail.

They refer to the "paramount intelligence importance both to ASIO and (the) Security Service" of confirming Petrov's defection.

Among the documents are scores of typed telegrams, some with handwritten notations, between an unnamed Australian-based, Russian-speaking MI5 agent and his London head office.

ASIO told Britain of its initial suspicion of Petrov and there was an ongoing information exchange between the two countries from 1951 to 1954.

Having indicated to planted Australian government sources an interest in defecting, it came time for the heavy-drinking and womanising Petrov to return to Moscow, his two-year diplomatic posting complete.

Telegrams show the British became anxious at the prospect of losing Petrov.

While making his decision, Petrov seemed to show little consideration for his wife, seven years his junior and also a spy.

Her own defection came in very public circumstances. Images of two burly Russians dragging her onto a Moscow-bound flight in Sydney were beamed around the world.

The Australian government intervened and Petrova was granted political asylum in Darwin where the flight stopped to refuel.

The documents also reveal the role an airline fight attendant played.

A confidential voyage report by Captain John L M Davys, who was in the cockpit of the British Airways flight, recounts that a desperately sobbing Petrova confided in flight crew during trips to the toilet the only time she was away from her guards.

"As she passed the chief steward she held out her hands as though in an appeal," he reports. "The steward therefore followed her into the powder room.

"Mrs Petrov said more or less: 'What can I do? I've not slept for a fortnight. I've been guarded and questioned all the time. I want to see my husband. I don't know what to do ... what can I do? I'm frightened, the two couriers are armed and I can do nothing'."