# The KGB denial cables

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The KGB denial cables," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-kgb-denial-cables/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Two occasions on which, according to John Kiriakou, the first message the CIA received after an American killing came from the KGB and said the same thing: we promise it wasn't us. One followed the assassination of Athens station chief Richard Welch in December 1975, the other the killing of President Kennedy in November 1963. Kiriakou treats them as evidence of a standing gentleman's agreement between the two services not to touch each other's people — one he expects to hold even where Russian troops overrun CIA bases.*

- **The agreement:** Neither service harms or interferes with the other's people
- **First instance:** After [Richard Welch](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/richard-welch)'s assassination, 23 December 1975
- **Second instance:** After the killing of John F. Kennedy, 22 November 1963
- **The message, both times:** 'We promise it wasn't us'
- **Applied to Ukraine:** Overrun CIA bases would mean expelled officers — 'I wouldn't expect much more'

**The KGB denial cables** are two messages [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) cites as proof of an unwritten rule governing how the American and Soviet services treat each other's officers.

## The agreement

*"We've always had a gentleman's agreement with the Russians that we don't harm or interfere with their people, and they won't harm and interfere with our people."*[1]

## Athens, 1975

Kiriakou read the traffic himself. Recalling the reports from the murder of the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) station chief in Athens, [Dick Welch](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/richard-welch), on 23 December 1975: *"the very first cable that we received was from Moscow, and it was the KGB saying, we promise it wasn't us."*[1]

## Dallas, 1963

He gives the same account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963: *"the very first message that the CIA received was from the KGB saying, we promise it wasn't us. There's this gentleman's agreement that has always been respected."*[2]

## Why it still matters

Kiriakou raised the agreement to answer a practical question about the war in Ukraine: what happens when Russian troops reach the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) bases reported to be sited along the Russian border. His expectation is limited and specific — *"sure, they might overrun CIA bases and they'll likely expel those CIA officers, but I wouldn't expect much more."*[2]

The interviewer's response, that he was not sure the Russians were gentlemen, went unanswered as the segment ran out of time.[2]

## See also

- [Richard Welch](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/richard-welch)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [Ukraine as a proxy war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ukraine-proxy-war)

## Sources

1. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou REVEALS ALL on US-Israel All (2025-12-15), at 25:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jbpBecvpQ0&t=1500s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-15-afshin-rattansi-s-going-un-cia-whistleblower-john-kiriakou-reveals-all-o/
2. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou REVEALS ALL on US-Israel All (2025-12-15), at 25:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jbpBecvpQ0&t=1533s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-15-afshin-rattansi-s-going-un-cia-whistleblower-john-kiriakou-reveals-all-o/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-kgb-denial-cables/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt