Vladimir Andreievich Korchnoi (9 March 1953-) was a General of the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence agency. In 2015, he secretly defected to the United States by passing on information to them, leading to a 2018 operation to discover his identity; ultimately, Russian double agent Dominika Egorova framed her own uncle, Deputy Director Ivan V. Egorov, as the traitor, and he was killed instead of Korchnoi.
Biography[]
Vladimir Andreievich Korchnoi was born in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union on 9 March 1953 (three days after Joseph Stalin was laid in state), the son of a Red Army veteran of World War II. Because his father was a CPSU party member, his family had a privileged upbringing, but Korchnoi eventually learned that he was in a restrictive society, and he decided to lie and cheat to survive. He began a career in the KGB during the Cold War, being stationed in New York City. While he was there, his beloved wife fell ill, but Korchnoi had offended a Soviet bureaucrat, leading to the Russian embassy in New York refusing to allow an American doctor to operate on her. He eventually decided to work with the Americans, as they could at least aspire for individual freedom, and he wanted to escape the "prison in which (he) was born".
SVR general[]
Korchnoi in 2018
Korchnoi rose in the ranks of Russia's intelligence services, becoming a general in the SVR after the end of the Cold War. In 2015, he came into contact with CIA operative Nate Nash, and he began leaking information to him under the codename "Marble". In 2018, a meeting between Korchnoi and Nash was accidentally discovered by Russian police during a drug bust at Gorky Park in Moscow, leading to a campaign to discover Korchnoi's identity. The SVR sent "sparrow" Dominika Egorova, the niece of SVR Deputy Director Ivan V. Egorov (a close colleague of Korchnoi), to use sexpionage on Nash to find out Marble's identity. However, Nash "flipped" her and convinced her to become a double agent, and they killed SVR torturer Sergei Matorin after he was sent to torture Nash. When Egorova and Nash were sent to the hospital, Korchnoi arrived there, and he told Egorova that he knew that she was the one who killed Matorin. While Egorova was initially worried that her boss had discovered her treason, Korchnoi revealed his background and that he was the mole, and he offered Egorova two choices: she could report him to her uncle as the mole and be done with her job, or she could report him to her uncle and take his place as the American mole once he died. Ultimately, she instead framed her uncle as "Marble", and she became a Russian hero. Later on, the CIA arranged for her and her mother to escape to America, where they would be given security.