Unraveling a Secret KGB Investigation That Separated a Father and Son

About this episode

The Kremlin is not a fan of Alex Goldfarb. He left the Soviet Union as a scientist, becoming a prominent author and human rights activist. In 2006, he was in the room with ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, reading his dying words, which accused Vladimir Putin of assassination by radioactive polonium. Today, Alex's memoir, Refusenik's Son, traces a complicated family history made clear only decades later. His father, David, was a Jewish scientist denied permission to leave the Soviet Union - one of the so-called "refuseniks." David had been a prominent microbiologist in the 1970s and '80s, when Moscow's secret bioweapons program was under development. But only after an exiled KGB officer contacted Alex in 2010 did the full reason for his father's confinement become clear. It's a winding story involving an anthrax accident and a media leak, a Soviet scientist and a U.S. journalist trying to help him. Two men pulled unknowingly into a tide of suspicion. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.sp