Alexander Godunov

On August 21, 1979, while on a tour with the Bolshoi Ballet in New York City, Godunov contacted authorities and asked for political asylum. After discovering his absence, the KGB responded by putting his wife, Lyudmila Vlasova, a soloist with the company, on a plane to Moscow, but the flight was stopped before take-off while the State Department tried to determine whether she was leaving voluntarily. US diplomats arrived at the plane with a US passport ready for Vlasova, but she declined, so authorities allowed the flight.

However U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev then became involved in the incident. Finally, after three days, the plane was allowed to take off returning Vlasova to her family in Russia. Godunov spent a year trying to get her back but to no avail. Read Less