Embedded KGB Agents
The Embedded KGB Agent theory could be the plot of a good Cold War spy novel. It suggests Zolotaryov, Kolevatov, and Krivonischenko, were KGB agents. The other hikers did not know of their secret mission. They were to root out an American CIA cell. The three would deliver radioactive materials to CIA agents, pretending to be cooperate with the USA.
But the three were to photograph the agents so the KGB would be able to identify them, double-crossing the CIA. The meeting went wrong, the U.S. CIA agents figured out the betrayal, and killed the group in a melee worthy of an action movie. This is why there was radiation on some of the hiker’s clothes and perhaps why the Russian officials had a technician measure the site with a Geiger counter to measure radiation levels. Friends and family of the hikers do not support this theory.
