He stole our Cold War secrets for years. Now Russia’s chief spymaster in Australia just got swindled out of his retirement savings after falling for the oldest trick in the book…

A retired KGB agent who recruited an Australian spy to sell a ‘goldmine’ of secrets to the Soviets during the Cold War has been duped out of his life savings in an audacious scam that cost him $160,000.

Conmen posing as Russian officials preyed on Gerontiy Lazovik’s patriotism to convince the 92-year-old he could help the motherland one last time.

In an elaborate ruse waged on Lazovik and his wife, the pensioner was tricked into throwing US$100,000 (about £80,000) in cash from the balcony of the couple’s Moscow apartment.

It is likely the rip-off earlier this month was masterminded in neighbouring Ukraine, three years after Russian president – and former KGB lieutenant colonel – Vladimir Putin ordered its invasion.

Lazovik fell for the bogus mission request despite being a decorated international espionage veteran for whom duplicity was once a major tool of his trade.

These days, Lazovik lives in relative obscurity, but almost 50 years ago he orchestrated a devastatingly successful infiltration of Western security agencies.

Highly classified information held by the CIA, as well as Britain’s MI5 and MI6, fell into the hands of the USSR via a mole Lazovik recruited in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

Aged in his late 30s, Lazovik was posted to Canberra in 1971 as the KGB’s station chief under the bogus job title of second secretary for press information.

Gerontiy Lazovik (left) was the KGB’s station chief in Canberra in 1977 when he recruited an ASIO officer to sell secrets to the Soviets. Now 92, Lazovik has been duped by criminals posing as Russian officials into throwing $160,000 in cash off the balcony of his Moscow apartment

Ensconced undercover in the nation’s capital, the urbane Lazovik built a network of contacts among diplomats, public servants and journalists. He also cultivated Labor politicians, staffers and lobbyists.

In 1977, Lazovik received an anonymous package addressed personally to him at the Soviet embassy offering to sell Australian intelligence secrets. The package contained sample documents and was sent to Moscow for further examination.

Lazovik’s masters were initially sceptical of the approach, fearing it was the work of a double-agent. However, British defector Kim Philby confirmed to the KGB the material was genuine and Lazovik was told to employ the new asset.  

The source of the package turned out to be ASIO officer Ian George Peacock, a RAAF fighter pilot in World War II turned traitor. His identity was not exposed until 2023 as the result of an ABC Four Corners investigation.

Peacock, who had previously worked in Rome, was the supervisor of ASIO’s espionage unit in Sydney and had access to all the domestic security organisation’s counter-intelligence operations.   

In exchange for cash, Peacock began to provide top-secret information described as ‘a goldmine for Moscow’ by leaving documents at dead-drops in Sydney. He was given the codename Mira – ‘peace’ in Russian.

Peacock’s information was so useful to Moscow that the KGB dispatched specialist handler Yuri Shmatkov to the Soviet consulate in Sydney. Shmatkov used buses and trains to lose ASIO surveillance as he moved about the city.

According to the ABC investigation, Peacock would stash documents in hiding places within Centennial Park, which Shmatkov would retrieve and replace with ‘very large amounts of money’. 

Lazovik orchestrated a devastatingly successful infiltration of Western security agencies. He is pictured on the left with Ivan Stenin, his predecessor as KGB station chief in Australia, in a surveillance photograph taken in Canberra in 1971 by an ASIO operative

Lazovik orchestrated a devastatingly successful infiltration of Western security agencies. He is pictured on the left with Ivan Stenin, his predecessor as KGB station chief in Australia, in a surveillance photograph taken in Canberra in 1971 by an ASIO operative

One of the impostors who scammed Lazovik pretended to be Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a close crony of Vladimir Putin. Sobyanin (left) is pictured with Putin in July 2021

One of the impostors who scammed Lazovik pretended to be Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a close crony of Vladimir Putin. Sobyanin (left) is pictured with Putin in July 2021

The cash was sent from Moscow to Sydney every five or six weeks in a diplomatic pouch labelled ‘tobacco’. 

Among the documents Peacock sold to the KGB were details of Soviet personnel in Australia, as well as surveillance plans and even ASIO rosters.

Peacock’s betrayal not only compromised Australia’s national security but that of its Five Eyes partners: the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Canada.

At the time, ASIO was unaware why its successes against some groups threatening national security were not matched when it targeted suspected Soviet agents.

In the third and final volume of the official history of ASIO, The Secret Cold War, it was stated: ‘Poor tradecraft was offered as one explanation for this failure.

‘But, more importantly, for the first time ASIO was forced to consider the possibility that it and other elements of the government had been penetrated by a hostile intelligence service.’ 

Australia had also effectively become the back door for the USSR to gain information about CIA, FBI, MI5 and MI6 operations. 

Peacock’s motive for selling his country’s secrets has not been uncovered but a former colleague told the ABC, ‘Somehow, somewhere along the line, something happened, something happened to him… or something snapped.’

During his time in Canberra, the urbane Lazovik (right) built a network of contacts among diplomats, public servants and journalists. He also cultivated politicians, staffers and lobbyists

During his time in Canberra, the urbane Lazovik (right) built a network of contacts among diplomats, public servants and journalists. He also cultivated politicians, staffers and lobbyists

Former Canadian intelligence officer Dan Mulvenna told the ABC that Peacock fitted the profile of ‘an individual who was disappointed with his career and how it unfolded for him and he was, to a certain extent, somewhat bitter about that’.

Lazovik, who had also posed as a diplomat in London, returned to the USSR late in 1977 and was replaced in Canberra by KGB officer Lev Koshlyakov. 

Peacock continued to leak sensitive material until 1983 when he retired after 30 years working for ASIO. One of Peacock’s last jobs for the KGB was a $50,000 payday to find his own replacement.

ASIO did not discover if Peacock found a successor. It had already missed a chance to unmask the mole after MI6 reported to ASIO in 1980 that Lazovik been awarded a medal for an ‘intelligence recruitment’ while stationed in Canberra.

The award was found to be the prestigious the Order of the Red Star and the ‘recruitment’ an Australian intelligence officer. An internal ASIO investigation found 19 volumes of its file on Lazovik had been destroyed and did not uncover Peacock’s identity.

ASIO had been formed amid the global espionage struggle between the West and the USSR during the Cold War from the late 1940s.

Soon after its establishment in 1949, the agency learned through the interception of Soviet communications that an espionage ring was active in Australia.

In 1954, the agency secured the defection of Soviet diplomat and KGB officer Vladimir Petrov and his wife Evdokia, bringing international espionage to public attention.

Evdokia Petrov is escorted by armed Russian diplomatic couriers across the tarmac at Sydney Airport in 1954 after the defection of her KGB husband Vladimir in an ASIO Cold War victory

Evdokia Petrov is escorted by armed Russian diplomatic couriers across the tarmac at Sydney Airport in 1954 after the defection of her KGB husband Vladimir in an ASIO Cold War victory

‘For the next three decades, most of ASIO’s work focused on countering the threat of espionage and foreign interference directed against Australia by the Soviet Union and its allies,’ the agency has stated.

‘The end of the Cold War in the early 1990s brought an end to the bipolar nature of international espionage, but the use of espionage and foreign interference techniques continued unabated as instruments of state power.’

By the time ASIO could be sure it had been compromised by the Soviets, the Cold War was already over. Three decades later, it has still not publicly stated a particular mole was ever located.

It was not until the October 2016 publication of The Secret Cold War that the agency even conceded it had been infiltrated.  

Oleg Kalugin, a KGB general who defected to the U.S., wrote in his 1994 autobiography that in the 1970s and 1980s his agency had ‘excellent sources in Australia’.

Among those sources were what Kalugin called ‘productive moles in Australian intelligence who passed us documents from the CIA and British intelligence’.

Kalugin disclosed that in 1977 ‘an Australian sent a letter to our embassy in Canberra, enclosing top-secret documents and requesting that payment be made to a post office box in the capital’.

‘This began a fruitful relationship in which the anonymous Australian – in their intelligence agency – supplied us with extremely useful information about ASIO and its American and British partners.’

ASIO officer Ian George Peacock (above) sold intelligence secrets to the Soviets from 1977 until 1983 when he retired. He died in 2006 without ever having admitted his treacherous crimes

ASIO officer Ian George Peacock (above) sold intelligence secrets to the Soviets from 1977 until 1983 when he retired. He died in 2006 without ever having admitted his treacherous crimes 

This grainy photo of Peacock is from his profile in Australia's Virtual War Memorial - where, despite his treachery, he still has a place due to his RAAF service

This grainy photo of Peacock is from his profile in Australia’s Virtual War Memorial – where, despite his treachery, he still has a place due to his RAAF service

In August 1993, then-prime minister Paul Keating commissioned diplomat Michael Cook to report on claims the Soviets had penetrated ASIO and who had passed on sensitive information.

That report was never made public but Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who defected to the UK the same year Cook was commissioned, did provide major revelations.

Among the records Mitrokhin had smuggled out of Moscow was the retirement date of the KGB’s main ASIO source in Australia.

Yet ASIO was still unable to unmask Peacock, instead directing its attention to a Russian translator called George Sadil who had worked for the agency since the late 1960s.

Sadil was arrested in 1993 and charged with removing classified documents without authority when police found supposed evidence of espionage in his home.

The case against Sadil was dropped the following year after prosecutors could not establish a money trail back to the KGB and it becoming clear his profile did not match that of the ASIO mole.

ASIO finally realised sometime in the mid-1990s that Peacock was the man it had been unsuccessfully hunting.

The agency repeatedly tried to coax Peacock to confess but he lived out his days playing golf on Sydney’s Northern Beaches without ever admitting his guilt or being charged with any offence. He died in 2006.

Lazovik, pictured in hospital, has remained active in ex-KGB veterans organisations and might have been vulnerable to exploitation due to his loyalty to the communist government

Lazovik, pictured in hospital, has remained active in ex-KGB veterans organisations and might have been vulnerable to exploitation due to his loyalty to the communist government

He was awarded the prestigious Order of the Red Star upon his return to the motherland in recognition of his skills as a spymaster in Australia

He was awarded the prestigious Order of the Red Star upon his return to the motherland in recognition of his skills as a spymaster in Australia

Almost two decades later, it is hard to believe the man who recruited Peacock could be persuaded to literally throw away the funds for his last years of retirement.

Lazovik has remained active in ex-KGB veterans’ organisations and might have been vulnerable to exploitation due to his loyalty to the communist government. 

Scammers called the pensioner via video link using image substitution technology pretending to be ‘the head of a government agency and his assistant’.

One impostor pretended to be Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a close crony of Putin, according to reports in Russian media.

The fraudsters convinced Lazovik he was ‘participating in an operation to catch criminals’ seeking to defraud him and his wife.

Lazovik had been told to turn off the lights in his apartment and to search for suspicious people and vehicles near his apartment. 

He obeyed orders to shine a torch outside his building before dropping the $160,000 into the hands of man waiting down on the street upon receipt of a pre-arranged signal.

Lazovik eventually ‘realised that he had become a victim of fraud and contacted law enforcement’, according to the local prosecutor’s office.

A 20-year-old courier who received part of the money from the pensioner was caught red-handed.

Searches remain underway for other scammers, amid reports that many such schemes are staged from Ukraine, taking advantage of the gullibility of Russians.

Propaganda under Putin’s rule has led them to believe without question what ‘secret services’ officials tell them, and criminals are now exploiting that misplaced trust.

Lazovik (circled on the left) has remained active in ex-KGB veterans' organisations and might have been vulnerable to exploitation due to his loyalty to the communist government

Lazovik (circled on the left) has remained active in ex-KGB veterans’ organisations and might have been vulnerable to exploitation due to his loyalty to the communist government

The swindling of Gerontiy Lazovik might be a last ignominious chapter in a long and extraordinary life, much of it dedicated to protecting the motherland. 

Born in the village of Pyaliki, in the Vitebsk region of what is now northern Belarus, as a child, Lazovik had helped Soviet partisans during World War II fight the occupying German army.

After graduating from Belarusian State University, he worked on district committees of the Komsomol communist youth organisation in Brest and Molodechno.

‘Later, I was transferred to the Central Committee’s apparatus in Moscow,’ he once explained, without ever directly referring to his KGB service. 

‘Here, I completed the diplomatic academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for many years and visited many countries.’

Lazovik seemingly had no interest in describing the real nature of his work or how he helped provide the USSR with an intelligence edge in the last years of the Cold War.

‘I lived in Australia for six years and in England for two years,’ he said. ‘I have many relatives in Belarus, so I visit periodically.

‘I love Minsk. It is tied to my youth when I studied here. I am especially inspired by walks along Lenin Street.’ 

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