An explosive press conference by US intelligence personnel took place in West Germany in 1954. The stars of the show were Nikolai Khokhlov, a Soviet MVD assassin and his intended target, seated side by side.
Khokhlov was tasked to arrange the targeted killing of Gregory Okolovich, a senior member of the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists. The Solidarists were a group of Russian emigres working to subvert the Soviet government from abroad by establishing an agent network in country and smuggling anti-communist literature across the border with balloons, among other plans.
Khokhlov traveled to Frankfurt, West Germany along with two highly trained German agents who would carry out the killing at his direction. They had $55,000 in operational funds, real Austrian passports issued under fake names by a diehard communist agent in the Austrian government, and four silent firearms specifically fabricated by Laboratory Number 12 for this mission.
But once Khokhlov arrived in Frankfurt, he put a secret plan of his own into action. A plan that shocked his superiors in Moscow and opened a new chapter in the Cold War. And a plan which cost Nikolai Khokhlov dearly.
For episode #18 of the Spycraft 101 podcast I tell Nikolai’s incredible story in my own words, after months of research.
