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

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.