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All that seemed certain about the drama of the turncoat's return was that the last act began at a casual bistro in bustling Georgetown, Au Pied de Cochon, where he went for dinner with a junior CIA security officer on Saturday night. As his escort was paying the check, Yurchenko suddenly asked a question. "What would you do if I got up and walked out? Would you shoot me?" Replied the CIA agent: "No, we don't treat defectors that way." "I'll be back in 15 or 20 minutes," Yurchenko said. Pause. "If I'm not, it will not be your fault."
He did not come back, and it was not until late Monday afternoon that his whereabouts became public. At 4 p.m., Soviet Embassy Press Counselor Boris Malakhov called the Associated Press's State Department correspondent to inform him that there would be a press conference in 90 minutes. "We'll have Vitaly Yurchenko," he said. Replied Reporter George Gedda: "Wait a minute. Did I miss something? He defected three months ago." Said Malakhov: "Ah, there have been reports that he defected, but come to the embassy to find out what really happened."
Across Washington, even the highest officials snapped their heads in disbelief upon hearing the news of the impending press conference. CIA Director Casey, who had not told the White House about Yurchenko's disappearance over the weekend, quickly called Chief of Staff Donald Regan, who in turn told the President. Reagan apparently showed little emotion, but others in the West Wing gathered in front of televisions to watch CNN's live broadcast of the conference. What they saw for the next hour was one of the most amazing public performances ever to emerge from the foggy world of spy intrigue.
In front of some 50 journalists gathered in the new bunker-like Soviet compound atop Mount Alto in northwest Washington, Yurchenko vehemently insisted that he had never defected. Occasionally smirking, often scowling, always looking tough and in command, he freely alternated between Russian and English as he spun his tale of being "forcibly abducted" in Rome by American agents, drugged and flown to the U.S. against his will. For "three horrible months" he was held at a safe house in Fredericksburg, Va., Yurchenko claimed, taking apparent glee at revealing its exact location and details. Only on Nov. 2, when his CIA "torturers" let down their guard, so he said, was he able to escape.
Yurchenko described how CIA officials tried to buy his cooperation by offering him a $1 million payment plus $62,500 a year for life. The agency, he said, was even willing to throw in the safe house's furniture, worth about $48,000. He met with Casey over dinner at the CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters, but claimed he did not recall the conversation very well because he had been drugged before the meal by agents eager to make Casey think he was a willing defector.
Yurchenko denied he had willingly given any Soviet secrets to the CIA, but added that he did not know what he had said while drugged. "Please ask CIA officials what kind of secret information I gave them," Yurchenko said in English. "It would be very interesting for me to know too, because I don't know." When questioned about whether he was in the KGB, Yurchenko said that "I'm not going to make any comments about spying business."