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The accounts I have read make it sound pretty harmless - Foot apparently met someone from the Soviet embassy a few times, had discussions about things like the
by arethuza 6y ago
The accounts I have read make it sound pretty harmless - Foot apparently met someone from the Soviet embassy a few times, had discussions about things like the roles of unions in the UK but didn't share anything remotely secret or indeed, and critically in my view, know that the person he was speaking to was KGB. I don't think he was even close to being "recruited".
I seem to remember that one of Gordievsky's own points was that the KGB at that point tended to greatly overstate how important their contacts were to make them look better to Moscow.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> met someone from the Soviet embassy a few times ... but didn't ... know that the person he was speaking to was KGB Come on.... just a friendly chat about union politics with a man from the communist superpower? Was there anyone at the Soviet embassy at the time who was not likely working for the KGB to some extent? Embassies are still to this date I believe a key way intelligence agencies get people into a country. Assume anyone you meet and everything you do in an embassy of an adversary you're in a cold war against are going to be working against you.
- arethuza 6y agoI suspect he was probably a bit naive - mind you about the same time the Times was accusing him of being a fascist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot#In_government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot#In_government The actual KGB agent who met Foot said that he wasn't an agent and that as part of his job he met hundreds of people.