Dmitry Khmelnitsky
Since its independence in 1960, Cyprus has been the object of close attention from Moscow. It aimed to subordinate the island state’s politics to Soviet influence and to integrate its agents into the Cypriot establishment. A striking example of this integration is the story of Yanni Sofoklis, one of the most successful, judging by his biography, Soviet agents, who infiltrated Cypriot diplomatic circles and international organizations through Cyprus.
Lawyer Yanni Sofoklis holds a special place among Cypriot «friends of Moscow» and even among Cypriot graduates of the Peoples’ Friendship University. He is one of the few Cypriots who studied law in the USSR, which is strange in itself. It is unlikely that a Soviet legal education, unrecognized in the West, could have contributed much to his career success in his homeland. Sofoklis himself admitted in an interview that his education was recognized in Cyprus only in 1985 (he graduated from university in 1972). This did not prevent him from making a career connected not so much with Cyprus as with Moscow. He was taught what Moscow needed.
Sofoklis’ father Yannis Sofoklis (1923-1990) was a communist since 1938, a member of the Politburo of the AKEL party, and party boss of Paphos from 1946 to 1983. According to Yanni Sofoklis, his father visited the USSR many times and even studied for six months in Moscow at the Institute of Social Sciences in 1964. This speaks volumes.
The Institute of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee (ION) was established in 1962 to train personnel for communist movements (including illegal ones) in the West and the Third World. The Institute was closed and subordinated to the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee. There were branches of the ION in Moscow to train students from illegal organizations in the practice of armed struggle. Apparently, Yanni Sofoklis’ father studied in one of them. In 1955, after the banning of the AKEL party (until 1959), he was arrested by the British authorities together with other party functionaries. In 2024, a square in the center of Paphos was named after him. A few years later Sofoklis senior — in 1969-1974 — the future head of the AKEL party and future president of Cyprus (2008-2013) Demetris Christofias studied at the Institute of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee.
Sofoklis recalls how the recruitment of young Cypriots to Soviet universities took place: «After 1960, Cypriots were given the opportunity to study in the Soviet Union. There were always many more applicants than places available! Everyone’s fate was decided by the competition for Cypriot school certificates. Documents were sent to the Soviet embassy in Nicosia and we waited for the answer… In 1967, immediately after compulsory service in the National Guard of Cyprus, I applied for a scholarship for free education in the USSR. And I got a positive answer! … Young Cypriots at that time studied in many universities, in different republics and cities of the Soviet Union, receiving different specialties. The largest number of Cypriot students studied at all faculties of the Peoples’ Friendship University named after Patrice Lumumba».
It is clear that the selection of candidates in the Soviet embassy was based on a careful study of their families, connections, and possible usefulness to the USSR. It was a selection of future agents. This is, in fact, what is happening now.
John Barron in his book «KGB. The work of Soviet Secret Agents» gave the following characterization of this educational institution: «In 1960 Nikita Khrushchev stated that the establishment of the Lumumba University would serve to train «cadre intellectuals» for the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Russian authorities in the Soviet Union itself defined the university’s mission more simply; «To educate students from underdeveloped countries so that when they return to their countries they will become leaders of pro-Soviet activities.» The university’s first vice-rector was Pavel Yerzin, a major general in the KGB. Other KGB officers and agents serve among the faculty, which is entirely subordinate to the KGB. Students are selected primarily on the basis of their potential usefulness to the KGB. (If the Russians really want to train a foreigner to work in a Soviet aid project, they train him at first-class universities or polytechnic institutes. Such a student is not trained at the University named after Patrice Lumumba. Patrice Lumumba).» Among Cypriot graduates of Patrice Lumumba University, at least three have reached ministerial positions, according to Yannis Sofoklis.
During his studies, Sofoklis was the secretary of the community, solving the problems of all Cypriot students.
In 1972 Sofoklis received a law degree and a diploma of «evening courses in journalism». In the USSR, the profession of «international journalist» was virtually synonymous with «intelligence officer». In 1976 Sofoklis defended his dissertation at the same Lumumba University. In 1976, Sofoklis defended his thesis on «constitutional law» at the same Lumumba University, which in itself sounds ridiculous. However, he was denied recognition of these degrees in Cyprus. This did not prevent Sofoklis from working for four years, as he writes, «on behalf of UNESCO» in Guinea-Bissau, which gained independence from Portugal in 1974. In Guinea-Bissau, which was then pro-Soviet, Sofoklis participated as an adviser to the Ministry of Justice in the drafting of the country’s constitution. It is hard to doubt that this was KGB work. Especially since among the languages Sofoklis speaks, in addition to Russian, Greek, and English, are Spanish and Portuguese. Which indicates the nature of his training at the university.
Since 1984 Sofoklis was a permanent correspondent of the Cypriot communist newspaper Haravgi in Moscow, and after 1990 he worked for 11 years as a press and information advisor at the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in the USSR and in the Russian Federation. He was an interpreter at the meetings and negotiations between Cypriot and Russian Presidents Glafcos Cliridis and Boris Yeltsin in May 1995, and between Nicos Anastasiades and Vladimir Putin in February 2015.
He then returned to Cyprus and served in the Press and Information Bureau of the Cypriot Ministry of Interior. From 2009 to 2011, he worked as an advisor to the Cypriot Embassy in Moscow. From 2011 to at least 2016 Sofoklis was the Moscow bureau chief (permanent correspondent in Moscow) of the newspaper Haravgi. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of such an agent in the diplomatic and governmental circles of Cyprus for the Soviet and Russian security services.
Sofoklis is not an agent of influence, that is why he keeps away from agents of influence — propagandists. According to his biography, he’s an intelligence agent. A man of the KGB and later Putin’s special services inside the Cypriot diplomatic corps and government. Keeping Moscow fully informed about what is going on in Cypriot politics is already a lot. But sometimes you have to engage in propaganda as well.
In 2017, Sofoklis supported Russia in its opposition to the European Court of Human Rights. In 2018, Sofoklis acted as an observer in Russia’s illegal presidential election in occupied Crimea, for which he came under sanctions from Ukraine. Cyprus was then represented by two other people — Skevi Koutra-Koukouma, a member of the Cypriot parliament from the AKEL party, and Elias Demetriou, a member of the Central Committee of the AKEL party.
The Soviet tradition of training agents of influence and spies from foreign students has not gone anywhere today. The scale of this work has only increased under Putin compared to Soviet times. The role of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, which is much more favorable to Putin’s Russia than most other European countries, has also increased, especially in the last three years. So Sofoklis and his colleagues will not be left without a replacement.