Anda Tsyelma was a Latvian nationalist and activist in 1988 when a KGB officer attempted to recruit her. That didn’t work but chemistry did and they ended up falling in love, forcing him to turn his back on the former Soviet Union.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Tsyelma said that in June 1988, Aleksandr Khalturin began his efforts to turn Tsyelma for the KGB’s causes. On one of their outings, they went to the beach.
“I remember it so well, it was a hot day and I was wearing a swimsuit,” she said. “I can remember so well how I was stretching provocatively. At that time, I started to really take an interest in him as a man, as my Romeo.”
READ MORE: Ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko was killed for calling Putin a pedophile: U.K report
Their illicit romance grew and the couple married in September 1989.
Khalturin left the KGB and joined Tsyelma to fight for Lativa’s independence, which was restored in 1991.
Tsyelma’s nation-less husband was unable to return to Russia for fear of arrest.
“Because he was a KGB guy, he wasn’t a citizen and he couldn’t get citizenship,” said Tsyelma.
“He was scared of going to Moscow. He believed he would be arrested.”
The couple settled in Latvia and adopted a son named Kostya.
Recalling their love affair, Tseylma said, “I wouldn’t have fallen in love with my husband if he had been an ordinary person.”
Before Khalturin died of cancer in 2013, Tsyelma said her husband worked as a policeman and a banker. They were married for 24 years.
Comments