Gennady Varenik

Gennady Varenik (Геннадий Вареник; 1953 – 1987) was a KGB official who was also a CIA asset. A son of a Ukrainian SMERSH veteran, he was assigned to the First Chief Directorate of the KGB in 1982.

He established contact with the CIA in March 1985 while in Bonn, allegedly, to use the rewards for passing information in redeeming a debt 7000 DM (or USD) of assigned operational funds which he had squandered. Varenik contributed information on secret KGB operations in West Germany and outed three valuable Soviet assets within the West German government. He was arrested in East Berlin in November 1985 by the KGB, interrogated using a truth drug, tried for treason and executed. He is one of the 25 Soviets betrayed by Aldrich Ames. Upon his arrest, he had reached the rank of podpolkovnik.