'K.G.B. ordered Markov killing’

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 6

'K.G.B. ordered Markov killing’

NZPA London; The Bulgarian exile killed last year in London by a, ] poisoned pellet injected into 1 ] his leg, Georgi Markov, was] killed on the orders of the] Russian Secret police, the! I K.G.8., and the Bulgarian I i Government, it has been (claimed. In the 8.8. C. “Panorama'! : programme the former head' | of a K.G.B. assassination! I team who defected to the ! (West in 1954 had “no doubt I whatever” that the Russian] secret service organisation: was involved in the murder: of Markov last September. : Nicolai Khokhlov commented: “To kill someone in England under the circumstances in which it was done, would require the highest approval.” The Bulgarian secret service had been trained, reared, supervised, monitored, and guided entirely by I the Sovet intelligence, he said. The poisoned pellet tech- : nique was almost ridiculouslv sophisticated. "That tells me that the officers who were planning the operation tried to please someone in the highest level.” Stefan Sverdlev, a colonel in the Bulgarian State security force until his defection

r[ in 1971, also appeared in the .programme. He said: “If you look at L ]the structure of the Bulgarian State security you will J see it’s Bulgarian in name J only. The entire operation is '[controlled by Soviet : I advisers. i “It’s inconceivable this murder could have been j done without the Russians I knowing about it.” ! Markov ' broadcast every! I week for Radio Free Europe] ;!about life at the top in Com-! : munist Bulgaria. Markov’s English wife. Annabel, said that a Bulgarian ] had visited her husband and : warned him that a decision ] had been taken “at the high- ] est. level” in Bulgaria to kill ihim. A Bulgarian Embassy spokesman said afterwards that the “Panorama” programme had not produced any evidence to show that the Government was in- ■ volved in the murder. "They did not prove a point. Everything was speculation — and quite malic-] ious,” he said. He was surprised that the British Government had] turned down Bulgaria’s offer; • to help with the Markov investigation. “The British Government I considered our offer for: about three months and then] ■ turned it down," he said.