Robert Edward Webster
American defector
Robert Edward Webster (October 23, 1928 – November 11, 1999) was an American technician of the Cleveland, Ohio-based Rand Development, who defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and returned to the United States in 1962. Webster was born in Tiffin, Ohio and educated in Pennsylvania. He served in the United States Navy as an electronics specialist.
Webster applied to Rand Development in November 1957 to work as a plastics chemist. In 1959 Webster travelled several times to Moscow for Rand to prepare for the American Exhibition there. During a seven-week stay beginning in May 1959, Webster began dating Vera Platanova, a waitress at the Hotel Ukraine, who was suspected of being a KGB agent.
On July 11, 1959 Webster approached Soviet officials at the exhibition to ask about procedures for a US citizen to remain in the Soviet Union. After several further meetings, including one in which Webster told two Soviet scientists he could help them duplicate the Rand spray gun on show in the exhibition, he was accepted by the Soviets, although posted to work in Leningrad rather than Moscow as he had asked. On October 17 he attended the US Embassy in Moscow (having already sent a postcard), meeting with Richard Edward Snyder. He filled in an "Affidavit for Expatriated Person" form and wrote a resignation letter to Rand.
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