In the mid-1970s I was involved with a US company that imported Soviet films. For one of the major films (Oblamov, one of the few exported to the States in those years) the Soviets sent the entire cast and the director (Nikita Mikahlkov who later won an Oscar for Burnt by the Sun) to NYC for the premiere. The movie stars (famous in the USSR) and the great director were accompanied by KGB watchers who were much more powerful than the guy you describe. The stars and Nikita were put up in a 4th rate Manhattan hotel and when they asked for permission to attend a Broadway show permission was denied; they had to sit in their rooms like prisoners.
I was present at a luncheon at a swank NY restaurant and the most nervous moment for the watchers was after the lunch, getting their wards into the cars. They were afraid their captives might make a run for it.
It was a rotten system and shame on those Americans who were put out by Leonid Florentiev's comments.
Yeah, that KGB watcher looked so out of place on the stage I was surprised that the American audience, dopey as they were, couldn't catch that. Also during the conference afterwards, he stood grimly off to the side and took no part in the conversations. I have to give him credit for immaculate grooming however. No sloppy Soviet clothes for him. He was dressed like a successful western businessman.