In 1980, Kalugin was demoted to deputy head of the Leningrad KGB as a result of an intrigue initiated by Vladimir Kryuchkov, then a close confidant of Yuri Andropov who had been privately criticized by Kalugin. Kalugin was accused of recruiting an agent 20 years prior, who the KGB believed probably incorrectly, was actually an American spy. That made Kalugin himself seem to be a security risk. He was suspected of working for the CIA, but there was no supporting evidence. Vladimir Kryuchkov, Chairman of the KGB and orchestrator of the 1991 coup plot, alleged that in his time in counterintelligence, he failed to discover a single US agent, but his successor would allegedly find over a dozen. Former CIA mole Karl Koecher made unsupported claims that for his eventual arrest, Kalugin was responsible.