Missing Soviet Envoy Reportedly Defects to U.S.
NEW DELHI — An Indian spokesman said Sunday that missing Soviet diplomat Igor Ghezha has defected to the United States.
The Foreign Ministry aide confirmed Indian news agency reports that Ghezha, 37, has been granted American political asylum.
Ghezha, a third secretary at the Soviet Embassy, went jogging in a New Delhi park a week ago and vanished.
Officials of both the Soviet Union and the United States refused comment Sunday. However, the two major news agencies here--the Press Trust of India and United News of India--both quoted official sources as saying that New Delhi had been informed of the defection by the U.S. charge d’affaires, Donald Streeb.
Four days after Ghezha disappeared, Viktor Khitzichenko, another Soviet Embassy official, was killed near the embassy by two gunmen riding a motorcycle. The assailants escaped.
Indian police had suspected that the two cases were related. They questioned scores of Afghan refugees opposed to Soviet involvement in their homeland but reported no progress.
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