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I recently read "The Spy and the Traitor" which was an excellent book all about Gordievsky, who is the UK-recruited KGB agent that alerted the US to the risk.

I recently read "The Spy and the Traitor" which was an excellent book all about Gordievsky, who is the UK-recruited KGB agent that alerted the US to the risk. Although the book is a great read and makes Gordievsky out to be a hero, I couldn't help but notice that (1) most of the intelligence Gordievsky passed to the US was beneficial to both sides, as in this Able Archer example, and (2) that it was mysterious how lucky Gordievsky was to escape (UK agents were somehow able to drive him out of Moscow, after he was under suspicion by the KGB and had repeatedly been interrogated using drugs, which also mysteriously "didn't work"!) There is even a section in the book where another KGB agent "defects" to the West just long enough to give Gordievsky credibility, then "re-defects" back to the Soviet Union (with apparently no negative consequences.) Anyway, I'm sure there's nothing to it, maybe it's just a case of a true story that seems too good to be true. But if it was an operation, I'm glad it saved us from repeating messes like this one.

rootusrootus 4y ago
> UK agents were somehow able to drive him out of Moscow If the story of the defection on his wikipedia page [0] is accurate then it was more elaborate than that. He got himself close to the Finnish border and then the MI6 agents smuggled him across the border. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Gordievsky#Escape_from_the_USSR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Gordievsky#Escape_from_th...
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  I read the same book and came to the conclusion that the MI6 agents risked their lives, including that of an infant used for cover, to rescue Gordievsky. It is a really good book.
- matthewdgreen 4y ago
  It was vastly more screwed up than that. The MI6 agents were bound from Moscow and being followed by KGB the entire time, but just managed to shake their tails for long enough (basically less than five minutes in several hours) to pick up Gordievsky at a rest area, and then the KGB ignored this and didn’t bother to search their cars at the border. Gordievsky himself managed to escape his KGB tails while under active suspicion of being a double agent, but nobody thought to throw up an alert that might have gotten him caught on the train or tighten security at land borders, or (even) pay special attention to the tiny number of British embassy staff who suddenly decided to embark on a car trip to Finland at exactly the same time. There was also an incident where Gordievsky miraculously made it to the rendezvous point early, but decided to leave and go into a cafe in a nearby town — where he not only risked being spotted and questioned, but he actually got drunk and nearly missed his escape. It is basically nothing short of miraculous that any of this worked, and it wouldn’t have worked if the KGB hadn’t set him free and behaved with massive incompetence. Even the British agents viewed the plan as a Hail Mary pass, but put it in place because they believed they had an obligation to try.
  - kitd 4y ago
    didn’t bother to search their cars at the border. Not entirely true. They had sniffer dogs going over all the cars, and Gordievsky was hiding in the boot of one. The MI6 agents "accidentally" dropped a few cheese and onion crisps by the car, plus the baby of one just happened to fill her nappy at that moment and the agent changed it next to the car. The sniffer dogs didn't stand a chance. FWIW, apparently that baby is now a senior curator at a major London art gallery.
    - matthewdgreen 4y ago
      It was an almost cartoonishly bad plan, and the book makes clear that everyone expected to be arrested at the border. They even had a letter of protest ready to go in case the guards opened the trunk, but nobody expected it would matter (except that of course the diplomats would eventually be expelled rather than imprisoned.) The border guards were “carefully searching the other cars” but ignored the British diplomats’ vehicles except for one pass with the dogs. Which is totally consistent with KGB incompetence and a desire not to kick off a diplomatic incident, but also totally absurd given that they had received positive intelligence that Gordievsky was working for the British and had deliberately shaken his tail.
  - euroderf 4y ago
    The part about them shaking their tail has always stricken me as fishy. I wonder if this is the whole story.

rootusrootus 4y ago

> UK agents were somehow able to drive him out of Moscow If the story of the defection on his wikipedia page [0] is accurate then it was more elaborate than that. He got himself close to the Finnish border and then the MI6 agents smuggled him across the border. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Gordievsky#Escape_from_the_USSR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Gordievsky#Escape_from_th...

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
I read the same book and came to the conclusion that the MI6 agents risked their lives, including that of an infant used for cover, to rescue Gordievsky. It is a really good book.
matthewdgreen 4y ago
It was vastly more screwed up than that. The MI6 agents were bound from Moscow and being followed by KGB the entire time, but just managed to shake their tails for long enough (basically less than five minutes in several hours) to pick up Gordievsky at a rest area, and then the KGB ignored this and didn’t bother to search their cars at the border. Gordievsky himself managed to escape his KGB tails while under active suspicion of being a double agent, but nobody thought to throw up an alert that might have gotten him caught on the train or tighten security at land borders, or (even) pay special attention to the tiny number of British embassy staff who suddenly decided to embark on a car trip to Finland at exactly the same time. There was also an incident where Gordievsky miraculously made it to the rendezvous point early, but decided to leave and go into a cafe in a nearby town — where he not only risked being spotted and questioned, but he actually got drunk and nearly missed his escape. It is basically nothing short of miraculous that any of this worked, and it wouldn’t have worked if the KGB hadn’t set him free and behaved with massive incompetence. Even the British agents viewed the plan as a Hail Mary pass, but put it in place because they believed they had an obligation to try.
- kitd 4y ago
  didn’t bother to search their cars at the border. Not entirely true. They had sniffer dogs going over all the cars, and Gordievsky was hiding in the boot of one. The MI6 agents "accidentally" dropped a few cheese and onion crisps by the car, plus the baby of one just happened to fill her nappy at that moment and the agent changed it next to the car. The sniffer dogs didn't stand a chance. FWIW, apparently that baby is now a senior curator at a major London art gallery.
  - matthewdgreen 4y ago
    It was an almost cartoonishly bad plan, and the book makes clear that everyone expected to be arrested at the border. They even had a letter of protest ready to go in case the guards opened the trunk, but nobody expected it would matter (except that of course the diplomats would eventually be expelled rather than imprisoned.) The border guards were “carefully searching the other cars” but ignored the British diplomats’ vehicles except for one pass with the dogs. Which is totally consistent with KGB incompetence and a desire not to kick off a diplomatic incident, but also totally absurd given that they had received positive intelligence that Gordievsky was working for the British and had deliberately shaken his tail.
- euroderf 4y ago
  The part about them shaking their tail has always stricken me as fishy. I wonder if this is the whole story.