The political officer's plan for defection was very poorly thought out.
First off, he started carrying out his plan while still at anchor at the port in Riga. That allowed another officer to escape and alert the Soviet authorities, and he still had to sail 8 hours to enter international waters in the Baltic Sea.
Secondly, he was going to go to Leningrad (about 24 hours from Riga via boat), broadcast a message to bring about another communist revolution (because the party was not living up to communist ideals), and go from there. But that entire journey would leave them open to attack from the Soviet military. He could have been in relative safety in Swedish waters.
The ideal plan would be to sail out as scheduled, defect somewhere in the Bay of Riga, sail out with the rest of the fleet as scheduled into international waters in the Baltic Sea, but just maintain a course for due west (to Sweden) instead of going southwest with everyone else. If Russia figures out what's going on (missing boat), our systems malfunctioned and we don't know where we are. Til Russia figures out what the real reason is, you're close enough to Swedish waters that Russia's ability to stop the mutiny (short of launching an attack in Swedish waters, which in 1975 is basically an act of war) is almost nonexistent.
