News In Brief

Soviet journalist kidnapped to prevent testimony, writer says

Soviet journalist Oleg Bitov was kidnapped in London by the Soviet secret police, the KGB, to prevent him from testifying about the alleged Soviet-Bulgarian connection in the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, according to Russian emigre writer Anatoly Gladilin, whose analysis of the case was published in Le Monde last week.

Mr. Bitov defected at the Venice Film Festival in September 1983 and was given asylum in Britain. He reappeared in Moscow last month and claimed at a news conference that he had not defected but had been kidnapped and tortured by British agents.