Aleksandr Dmitrievich Ogorodnik

Who was Aleksandr Dmitrievich Ogorodnik?

Alexander Dmitrievich Ogorodnik was a Soviet diplomat who, while stationed in Bogotá, was blackmailed by Colombian intelligence agents and CIA into spying against the Soviet Union, operating under the code name Trianon and Trigon. While he initially showed little promise and claimed he knew only of Colombian political affairs, he was later transferred to the Soviet Foreign Ministry in Moscow. In this new position, he was able to photograph a great deal of secret diplomatic cables, many of which were sent daily to the White House. Ogorodnik eventually requested a suicide pill to be used in the event that he was caught. His chief handler, famed CIA traitor Aldrich Ames, was able to supply him with one, and in 1977 Ogorodnik used it after being betrayed by a Czechoslovakian translator working for the CIA, called Karl Koecher.