Background
Seina, Violetta was born in 1961.
Seina, Violetta was born in 1961.
Employed by the UPDK (Directorate of Services to the Diplomatic Corps), the organization run by the Committee for State Security, which provides staff (secretaries, cooks, drivers, maids etc) for foreign organizations and individuals residing in the USSR. In early 1987, she was the cause of all coded radio communications between Washington and its Embassy in Moscow being stopped, following the alleged betrayal of secrets by 2 American marine guards, one of whom was her lover. According to a Pentagon official, she infiltrated the US Embassy in Moscow just before the Iceland summit in October 1986, causing the worst security breach in American history. The Seina operation resulted in the elite, 28-man marine contingent which guarded the American Embassy in Moscow being summoned home in disgrace for interrogation, with 2 of them facing espionage charges.
Her method of operation was simple: she ‘accidentally’ met one of the marines, Lonetree, in a Moscow underground station in Sep. 1985. As the relationship developed, she was invited to Embassy parties, and soon persuaded Lonetree to let ‘uncle Sasha’ (the high-ranking Committee for State Security officer Aleksei Efimov) roam around the most secret corridors of the Embassy. Efimov was soon paying Lonetree to help him systematically collect codes, ciphers and photostats.
The blueprints of the Embassy, along with the names, photographs and addresses of CIA Moscow contacts, were also taken away. She was eventually exposed by the young marine who could stand the pressure no longer. Lonetree was jailed in the USA for 30 years for trading secrets for sex and fined $5,000.