Soviet and Russian tennis player Andrei Chesnokov, in an interview with , told how he was recruited by the KGB during his professional career.
Chesnokov ended his career in 2000. The Russian is the owner of two Masters tournament titles in Monte Carlo (1990) and Montreal (1991). With the Russian national team he became a Davis Cup silver medalist in 1995.
—You told a story about how people from the KGB wanted to recruit you and you agreed. Can you tell us more?
It was in the 80s. A stranger approached me and made an appointment at the Metropol Hotel near Red Square. Maybe he belonged to the KGB, or maybe other agencies. In the hotel room, he told me that I now had to report what my fellow tennis players did when they traveled abroad: if someone sold or bought something. I accepted because otherwise I would not have been able to travel abroad at all. But I understood that I would not denounce my comrades. I was supposed to call after each trip and tell them about each person, but I never did. So it slowed down.
—Was there no problem because of that?
— After a few trips without calling, this man came to the Spartak courts and asked me how it was going, what the problem was and why I wasn’t calling. In the end, everything ended well,” Chesnokov told .
Source : MatchTV
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
