Before Evan Gershkovich, reporter Nicholas Daniloff was accused of espionage at the height of the Cold War
Today, the Cold War experience of Mr. Daniloff, 88 years old, now living with his wife in Massachusetts, has gained new resonance as the last U.S. reporter seized by Russia before Mr. Gershkovich. His case provides insights into the methods Russia’s security services and the Central Intelligence Agency used in a bygone era.
The couple drove to the U.S. Embassy, a trip that Mrs. Daniloff said was the most frightening of his life, because they expected to be stopped and searched by the KGB. At the embassy, they handed the letter to the chief cultural attaché, who conveyed it to the CIA—a move that would greatly complicate Mr. Daniloff’s life in the future, according to Mr. Daniloff’s memoir.
Sometimes secrets were pushed into the hands of U.S. journalists anyway, who were some of the only Americans residing in Moscow at the time. Mr. Daniloff said he handed over the name and phone number of a person he thought dropped off the package. As they followed his lead, CIA officials mentioned Mr. Daniloff’s name twice—once by using the Russian version of his first name in a call and another time using his first name in a letter.
Mr. Daniloff said his worries receded as months passed and he neared the end of his assignment in Moscow in 1986. He was charged with espionage and transported to Lefortovo prison, the same place where Mr. Gershkovich is being held.of Putin’s Russia and a country at war
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