Mikhail Kryzhanovsky

Mykhaylo (Mike – or a compromise, Mikhail) Kryzhanovsky was born in 1958 in Ukraine. He graduated from Chernovtsy University (BS in languages) and received an extraordinary specialized education at Ivano-Frankovsk University of Social Studies, military college, the KGB counter-espionage school and the KGB Intelligence Institute. He was involved in secret operations since 1978, and later served as a USSR intelligence officer, and a member of the KGB’s “The Bell” top secret anti-terror group. He was a senior intelligence officer and top US government expert with the National Security Service of Ukraine (NSS). His outstanding record of producing up to 20 top-secret government intelligence reports (coded telegrams) a year made him the most productive spy in KGB history, and his unprecedented 30-year espionage career in Russia and the USA probably makes him the number one spy in the world. In 1992 as NSS officer he managed an illegal espionage station in Moscow, Russia, and planned to substitute a stand-in or double for Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who was the biggest threat to Ukraine at the time. There was a leak, and Yeltsin pushed Ukrainian President Kravchuk to sign a secret agreement to end mutual espionage. Kryzhanovsky learned that a decision had been made to liquidate him and in 1995 he came to the United States. Another KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, a former FSB (Russian counter-espionage service) chief, used his plan and substituted a double for Yeltsin in 2000.