George Krimsky

George Krimsky (journalist)
Born	1942
Died	2017 (Age 75)
Nationality	US
US journalist that was part of Cold War propaganda apparatus

George Krimsky is a US journalist expelled from the Soviet Union as a spy and one of the founders of the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C.

Background

Krimsky grew up in New York, California and Connecticut, where he graduated in 1960 from The Gunnery prep school. After attending Middlebury College, he joined the Army in 1962. He did three years of military service in Germany, during which he studied Russian (a dead give away for participation in intelligence work).

He returned home and took a job as a reporter for the Republican newspaper in Waterbury. In 1969 he began working for The Associated Press news agency in Los Angeles, where he covered Charles Manson’s arrest after the killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate.

He later worked for the AP at its New York headquarters and then, in 1974, was posted to the Soviet Union as a correspondent. His Russian ancestry and command of the language gave him access to political dissidents including nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov, the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Krimsky held secret meetings with Josef Stalin’s grandson Josef Alliluyev, who pleaded with Krimsky to help him arrange a visit to the US to see his mother after she defected to the US. In the end, Alliluyev’s defection never happened.

Krimsky was expelled from the Soviet Union after a charge of espionage. A US embassy cable writes "According to TASS, [Krimsky] "Was engaged in recruiting Soviet citizens for the CIA"The charges included being a courier between the CIA and various dissidents...He was expelled from the USSR for violations of currency laws," i.e. handing envelopes of dollars to dissidents.

Krimsky was later stationed in the Middle East, where he was based in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war.

Following his overseas service, he was appointed head of the Associated Press's World Services News Department.

He left the AP in 1985 to help establish what became the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), a training and help facility in Washington, D.C, allegedly "an organization run by journalists for journalists to help foster their ideals".

Krimsky worked as an independent media consultant, traveling the world serving in Central Asia as a journalism trainer for the Centre, a reporter and a columnist before retiring in 2012.

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