ASIO spy-runner close to Putin

A RUSSIAN spy suspected of running a mole inside ASIO has been feted by former KGB chiefs including Vladimir Putin.

Lev Koshlyakov.

A RUSSIAN spy suspected of running a mole inside ASIO for seven years has been feted with high-flying jobs by former KGB chiefs including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Intelligence sources believe former KGB agent Lev Koshlyakov managed a mole who is suspected of leaking top secret intelligence from ASIO to Moscow from 1977 to 1984, undermining the Fraser and Hawke governments.

Mr Koshlyakov has since become close to fellow former KGB agent Mr Putin, who is believed to have sponsored his rise to become a director and chief spokesman for the national airline, Aeroflot, and a member of Russia’s prestigious Council for Foreign and Defence Policy.

Mr Putin will visit Australia next week for the G20 meeting at a time when tensions are high following Russia’s alleged role in the shooting-down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, in which 38 Australians died.

The existence of the ASIO mole has never been publicly confirmed by the Australian government, although the story is believed to be contained in a secret report written in 1994 by former diplomat Michael Cook, a report that five successive governments refused to release.

Intelligence sources believe the ASIO mole passed on inform­ation to the Russians from 1977 to 1984, the same years as Mr Koshlyakov was station chief for the KGB in Canberra, where he posed as the press and information officer for the Russian embassy, a role in which he fraternised with press gallery journalists.

“Koshlyakov was one of the most dangerous KGB officers ever posted here,” says a former ASIO officer in a confidential memoir obtained by The Weekend Australian.

“He was an agent runner and used all the counter-surveillance tricks known … he was good at getting out of the (Soviet) ­embassy without being picked up. Gareth Evans as ­attorney-general said to me every time I met him: ‘Tell me about Koshlyakov’.’’

Another intelligence insider said of Mr Koshlyakov: “He was different, a change from the old type (of Soviet spy) who had bad skin, ill-fitting suits and eyes too close together.”

Mr Koshlyakov was rewarded for his efforts in Australia.

A keen speed skater, he was promoted to KGB station chief in Norway until he was expelled from Oslo in 1991 for spying.

After he left the KGB, his former KBG boss Yevgeniy Primakov appointed him deputy chairman of the All-Russia State Television Company, where he appeared briefly as the night-time news anchor.

Intelligence sources believe Mr Putin personally backed his rise through the ranks of Aeroflot from 2001 to 2009, where he became director of corporate communications.

Mr Koshlyakov, 69, is currently deputy communications chief for another Russian airline, UTair, and a member of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy.

Mr Putin was a young KGB officer in his early 20s when Mr Koshlyakov was KGB chief in Canberra but the pair, both from Saint Petersburg, are said to have forged a friendship later in life.

Although Mr Koshlyakov was believed to have run the ASIO mole, his KGB predecessor Geronty Lazovik is thought to have recruited the ASIO officer.

Lazovik received a medal on his return to Moscow.

The Cook inquiry into Russian penetration of ASIO was ordered by then prime minister Paul Keating in 1993 after information provided to the CIA and Britain’s M16 from Russian defectors in 1992 showed there was a Russian mole within ASIO.

The Cook report is believed to discuss the ASIO mole, revealing him as a senior manager who ­divulged secrets from 1977 until his retirement in 1984 or 1985.

Sources say the mole was identified in 1992 but there was not enough information to prosecute him and he lived out his retirement in Australia.

“He spent the rest of his life looking over his shoulder,” one intelligence insider said.

The Cook report is rumoured to have identified up to three other suspected Russian moles who were still serving in the ­organisation in 1992 and who were quietly retired.

The government has never confirmed or denied the ­rumours.

Speaking from Russia last night, Mr Koshlyakov declined to answer questions about his time as a KGB officer because he was “observing the rules of the game I am long time out”.

“I sympathise professionally with poor ASIO guys under continuous media attacks, but tell them that KGB is as unpopular in Russia today,” he said.

“I deeply regret the return of the cold-war rhetoric and surprised that 35-year-old spy gossips have any relevance to what is happening to the world now.

“By the way, I was refused an Australian visa for a contact with a Sydney journalist on this topic when I applied in late 90s.”