On this date, 35 years ago, August 21, 1987, Marine Corps Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, a member of the U.S. Embassy Moscow Marine Security Guard detachment was convicted of espionage and 12 related counts by an eight-member military tribunal. Lonetree would be sentenced to 30 years in prison and would have this sentence reduced several times over the ensuing years. He ultimately ended up serving nine years at the United States Disciplinary Barracks and was released in 1996.
The honeytrap
Lonetree was one of 23 Marine Security Guards (MSG) at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. I had made his acquaintance during his tour of duty as it overlapped with my own, and he was a sometimes patron of the Uncle Sam’s aka the American Club at the Embassy of which I was the proprietor. He was a quiet man, then in his early 20’s, now he must be 60ish, who became enamored with an embassy foreign service national, Violetta Sanni, a Soviet of Ukrainian ethnicity, who worked in the Embassy’s government services office (GSO). During his 18-month Moscow assignment, his relationship with Sanni flew under the radar.
During his many interviews and testimonies, Lonetree explained how he and Sanni met. He followed her out of the Embassy and to her home, he did it multiple times, finally working up the courage to speak to her on the subway, and after which he walked her all the way home. The next day he was waiting at the Embassy entrance gate at the close of business and walked with her from the Embassy to the subway and onward to her apartment, which she shared with her mother.
While Lonetree no doubt thought himself to be discreet, there is absolutely no way his activity did not come to the attention of the KGB who was monitoring the comings and goings at the Embassy and would have cataloged this encounter.
Lonetree would go on to visit with Sanni at her home a number of times. A 1998 Washington Post article quoted Lonetree from a confession, “I would utilize countersurveillance techniques in leaving the embassy and going to Violetta’s house. These techniques included changing modes of transportation, vary my routes, backtracking and wearing different coats and changing them. I used the countersurveillance to avoid being followed by the KGB.” The absurdity lays in the explanation of how he learned such techniques – he read spy novels.
One thing leads to another, the personal relationship with Sanni becomes an intimate relationship, and Sanni, whether compelled or collaborative, introduces “Uncle Sasha” to young, Sgt. Lonetree. Uncle Sasha was introduced as a lawyer with interests in U.S. culture who was well connected. He turned out to be Alexei Yefimov, who Lonetree came to understand was affiliated with the KGB.
Uncle Sasha elicited information from Lonetree and tasked him with low-level information gathering. Despite the hullabaloo about Lonetree and a fellow Marine having let KGB officers into sensitive areas of the embassy including the communications center and sensitive office spaces, the likelihood of this having happened was low, and the most sensitive areas were not penetrated.
Lonetree was transferred from Moscow to U.S. Embassy Vienna and Uncle Sasha followed, made contact and turned over the handling of Lonetree to a Vienna-based KGB officer. The Soviets had a nascent recruit in their hands, which they had yet to fully exploit. They tasked him to identify intelligence officers in Vienna and bring out a directory of the Embassy. He claims he provided an Embassy telephone book which he took from the unclassified trash, they paid him $1800, which he used $1000 to purchase a gown for Sasha to carry back to Sanni. He was tasked with crafting a floor plan of the U.S. Embassy Vienna and providing photos of those who he believed to be intelligence officers. He complied and hand drew a diagram of the Embassy and initially provided three photos. He would later confess and a plead guilty to the charge of identifying nine U.S. intelligence officers in Moscow and Vienna to the KGB.
Lonetree turns himself in
Christmas rolls around, and Lonetree is feeling the pressure. At an Embassy Christmas party, he approaches the CIA Station Chief and asks to speak to him privately. He confesses to the Chief of Station. With that act, what would follow would often be compared to a three-ring circus without a Ring Master. The CIA, NCIS, State Department and USMC all engaged as the Marine Security Guard program in Moscow became the center of attention, a global investigation ensued, and it was immediately believed that Lonetree and others had allowed the Embassy in Moscow to be penetrated. It was, in a few words, a hot mess.
Lonetree does his time and is released
The reality, which comes with the luxury of 20/20 hindsight, is Lonetree did indeed provide information to the KGB, including the identities of intelligence officers. He also provided knowledge of the building and security regime to which he had access. What he didn’t do was provide unencumbered access to the Embassy. The interviews of Lonetree and the other Moscow marines were intense, some of them overly so.
To his credit, Lonetree stood at his sentencing and said he was ready to take whatever was his punishment. He blamed no one but himself. The reality was Lonetree got caught in the switches of the “big game” and was manipulated by the KGB, who took advantage of his infatuation with Sanni.
The military tribunal wanted to make an example of him, and they did. The fact that his sentence continued to be reduced as time passed, speaks to the overzealousness of the inter-governmental investigation searching for facts that fit a predetermined narrative.
Lonetree is now free and should be about 60 years old. But being free is not the same as being free of history. Rod Barker, author of “Dancing with the Devil” book about Lonetree commented in 1996, “Legally he will have served his time, he will have paid his debt . . . but he’ll always have to live with the legacy of being the first Marine, the only Marine, to ever have been convicted of espionage.”
