78-478: The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (Russian: Служба внешней разведки Российской Федерации , romanized : Sluzhba vneshney razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii , IPA: [ˈsluʐbə ˈvnʲɛʂnʲɪj rɐˈzvʲɛtkʲɪ] ) or FIS RF (Russian: СВР РФ , romanized : SVR RF ) is Russia's external intelligence agency , focusing mainly on civilian affairs. The SVR RF succeeded
156-442: A native Russian keyboard layout ( JCUKEN ). In the latter case, they would type using a system of transliteration fitted for their keyboard layout , such as for English QWERTY keyboards, and then use an automated tool to convert the text into Cyrillic. There are a number of distinct and competing standards for the romanization of Russian Cyrillic , with none of them having received much popularity, and, in reality, transliteration
234-582: A safe house . During the escape, Blake fractured his wrist jumping from the perimeter wall, but apart from that it all went according to plan. After the escape, it became apparent that the safe house was not suitable, as it was a bedsit that was cleaned by the landlady once a week. Blake then spent several days moving between Randle and Pottle's friends' houses, including that of Rev. John Papworth in Earls Court . Subsequently, Blake and Bourke moved in with Pottle, staying with him while preparing to get out of
312-507: A 1992 interview for the programme As It Happens , aired by Canada's CBC Radio , Blake praised the general concept of communism. He said that he had offered his services to the Soviet Union because he viewed communism as "a great experiment of mankind, to create a more just society, to create, in fact, the kingdom of God in this world". During this discussion, he denied responsibility for the deaths of any British agents, having been assured by
390-520: A Dutch mother and an Egyptian Jewish father [he] was never considered one of them." In 1961, Blake fell under suspicion after revelations by Polish defector Michael Goleniewski and others. He was arrested when he arrived in London after being summoned from Lebanon , where he had been enrolled at the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies (MECAS). Three days into his interrogation, Blake denied he
468-493: A Dutchman and half a Jew") as partial inspiration for the characters of Toby Esterhase and Roy Bland. Le Carré later recalled "when I started putting together my little bestiary of suspects, I made sure there were at least two of them...who were alienated by birth from the class structure that they served." The play Cell Mates (1995) by Simon Gray is about Blake and Sean Bourke . The original production starred Stephen Fry as Blake and Rik Mayall as Bourke. The production
546-447: A KGB pension. His eyesight was failing and he described himself as "virtually blind". He remained a committed Marxist–Leninist . Blake denied being a traitor, insisting that he had never felt British: "To betray, you first have to belong. I never belonged." Five years later, Blake remained committed to Russia and to communism. In a November 2017 statement, he claimed that its spies now have "the difficult and critical mission" of saving
624-581: A Latin alphabet for the Russian language was discussed in 1929–30 during the campaign of latinisation of the languages of the USSR , when a special commission was created to propose a latinisation system for Russian. The letters of the Latin script are named in Russian as following (and are borrowed from French and/or German ): George Blake George Blake ( né Behar ; 11 November 1922 – 26 December 2020)
702-406: A claim of moral justification for aiding Blake, whose 42-year sentence they considered to be excessively long and "inhuman". Despite being directed that they must find the men guilty, the jury acquitted them both; an act known as jury nullification in which a jury uses its absolute discretion to find as it sees fit. Bourke was not prosecuted for his role since Ireland refused to extradite him to
780-605: A director, a first deputy director (who oversees the directions for Foreign Counterintelligence and Economic Intelligence) and the following departments: Each directorate is headed by a deputy director who reports to the SVR Director. The Red Banner Intelligence Academy has been renamed the Academy of Foreign Intelligence (ABP are its Russian initials) and is housed in the Science Directorate. During Boris Yeltsin's presidency,
858-413: A good deal of grief, though he knew that Gillian would have struggled to settle into life in the Soviet Union. In 1990, Blake published the autobiography No Other Choice . The book's British publisher had paid him approximately £60,000 before the government intervened to stop him profiting from sales . Eventually, the amount seized by the government totalled £90,000. He later filed a complaint charging
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#1732854943943936-504: A hero, landing at RAF Abingdon . In October 1954, he married MI6 secretary Gillian Allan in St Mark's Church (North Audley Street) in London. In 1955, he was sent by MI6 to work as a case officer in Berlin , where his task was to recruit Soviet officers as double agents. But he also informed his KGB contacts of the details of British and American operations, including Operation Gold , in which
1014-470: A message published on the Kremlin website, the Russian leader noted Blake's "invaluable contribution to ensuring strategic parity and maintaining peace on the planet." Putin also said of Blake, "Colonel Blake was a brilliant professional of special vitality and courage." Blake was buried with military honours at Moscow's Troyekurovskoye Cemetery , in its Alley of Heroes, under the name Georgy Ivanovich Bekhter,
1092-512: A tunnel into East Berlin was used to tap telephone lines used by the Soviet military. In order to protect Blake from exposure, the Soviet decided not to "discover" the tunnel until it had been in operation for nearly a year. According to the author of a 2019 book about the operation, the Soviets "value[d] Blake so much, they fear[ed] his exposure more than they fear[ed] a breach of their secrets". In
1170-419: A window at the end of the corridor where his cell was located. Then between 6 and 7 p.m., while most of the other inmates and guards were at the weekly film showing, Blake climbed through the window, slid down a porch and made his way to the perimeter wall. There, Bourke, who had been released from the prison earlier, threw a rope ladder over the wall. Blake then used it to climb over the wall and they drove off to
1248-521: Is dubious. It was the longest non-life sentence ever handed down by a British court. Five years into his imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs , Blake escaped with the help of three men he had met in prison, Sean Bourke and two anti-nuclear campaigners, Michael Randle and Pat Pottle . The escape was masterminded by Bourke, who first approached Randle only for financial help with the escape. Randle became more involved and suggested they bring Pottle in on
1326-665: Is executed by the president of Russia , who appoints the Director of the SVR . The director provides regular briefings to the president. The director is a permanent member of the Security Council of Russia and the Defense Council. According to published sources, the SVR included the following directorates in the 1990s: According to the SVR RF web site, the organization currently consists of
1404-636: Is fond of attending." Romanization of Russian The romanization of the Russian language (the transliteration of Russian text from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script ), aside from its primary use for including Russian names and words in text written in a Latin alphabet, is also essential for computer users to input Russian text who either do not have a keyboard or word processor set up for inputting Cyrillic, or else are not capable of typing rapidly using
1482-577: Is often carried out without any consistent standards. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System , is a system that has been used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST and ISO systems. OST 8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced on 16 October 1935. Developed by
1560-689: Is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The Library of Congress system (ALA-LC) is used for newer acquisitions. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce. In many publications, a simplified form of the system is used to render English versions of Russian names, typically converting ë to yo , simplifying -iy and -yy endings to -y , and omitting apostrophes for ъ and ь . It can be rendered using only
1638-786: Is the official foreign-operations successor to many prior Soviet-era foreign intelligence agencies, ranging from the original 'foreign department' of the Cheka under Vladimir Lenin , to the OGPU and NKVD of the Stalinist era, followed by the First Chief Directorate of the KGB . Officially, the SVR RF dates its own beginnings to the founding of the Special Section of the Cheka on 20 December 1920. The head of
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#17328549439431716-792: The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty . The SVR also tried to justify annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union in World War II using selectively declassified documents. Sanctioned in May 2023 by the United States Department of the Treasury pursuant to E.O. 14024 for being a political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality of the Government of the Russian Federation. From the end of
1794-1128: The First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB in December 1991. The SVR has its headquarters in the Yasenevo District of Moscow with its director reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation . Unlike the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the SVR is tasked with intelligence and espionage activities outside the Russian Federation. It works together with the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (Russian: Главное разведывательное управление , romanized : Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye , IPA: [ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə] , GRU), its military-joint affairs espionage counterpart, which reportedly deployed six times as many spies in foreign countries as
1872-606: The New York Public Library where they gained access to the Internet without anyone knowing their identity. They placed propaganda and disinformation on educational websites and sent emails to US broadcasters. The articles or studies were generated by Russian experts who worked for the SVR. The purpose of these active measures was to whitewash Russian foreign policy , create a positive image of Russia, promote anti-American feelings and "to cause dissension and unrest inside
1950-537: The Old Bailey , he was sentenced to the maximum term of 14 years consecutively on each of three counts of spying for a potential enemy and 14 years concurrently on both the two remaining counts—a total of 42 years imprisonment—by the Lord Chief Justice , Lord Parker of Waddington . This sentence was reported by newspapers to represent one year for each of the agents who were killed when he betrayed them, although this
2028-622: The United Nations Command defending the South, Blake and the other British diplomats were taken prisoner. As the tide of the war turned, Blake and the others were taken north, first to Pyongyang and then to the Yalu River . After seeing the bombing of North Korea , and after reading the works of Karl Marx and others during his three-year detention, he became a communist. At a secret meeting arranged with his guards, he volunteered to work for
2106-1027: The 1980s, KGB and later SVR began to create "a second echelon" of "auxiliary agents in addition to our main weapons, illegals and special agents", according to former SVR officer Kouzminov. These agents are legal immigrants, including scientists and other professionals. Another SVR officer who defected to Britain in 1996 described several thousand Russian agents and intelligence officers, some of them "illegals" who live under deep cover abroad. Between 1994 and 2001, high-profile cases of Americans working as sources ('spies') for Russian agencies included those of Aldrich Hazen Ames , Harold James Nicholson , Earl Edwin Pitts , Robert Philip Hanssen and George Trofimoff . They would be considered double agents because they were working for American intelligence agencies while providing information to Russia. They were not Russian 'illegals' however, because they were American citizens. An agreement on intelligence cooperation between Russia and China
2184-471: The Assassin , who is believed to have been the poisoner of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, was allegedly an SVR officer. However, SVR denied involvement in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko . An SVR spokesperson queried over Litvinenko remarked: "May God give him health." The SVR was reportedly involved in the likely assassination of Maxim Kuzminov. Zaslon ( Russian : «Заслон» ) is a special forces unit in
2262-606: The British legation in Seoul , South Korea, under Vyvyan Holt , arriving on 6 November 1948. Under cover as a vice-consul, Blake's mission was to gather intelligence on Communist North Korea , Communist China , and the Soviet Far East . The Korean War broke out on 25 June 1950, and Seoul was quickly captured by the advancing Korean People's Army of the North. After British forces joined
2340-456: The British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system for bibliographic cataloguing requires some diacritics, two-letter tie characters , and prime marks. The standard is also often adapted as a "simplified" or "modified Library of Congress system" for use in text for a non-specialized audience, omitting the special characters and diacritics, simplifying endings, and modifying iotated initials. British Standard 2979:1958
2418-476: The British government with a human rights violation for taking nine years to decide on his case and was awarded £5,000 in compensation by the European Court of Human Rights . In 1991, Blake testified by video recording when Randle and Pottle were put on trial for aiding his escape. They were acquitted. In an interview with NBC News in 1991, Blake said he regretted the deaths of the agents he had betrayed. In
Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2496-594: The Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky , created the Foreign Department ( Inostranny Otdel – INO) to improve the collection as well as the dissemination of foreign intelligence. On 6 February 1922, the Foreign Department of the Cheka became part of a renamed organization, the State Political Directorate , or GPU . The Foreign Department was placed in charge of intelligence activities overseas, including collection of important intelligence from foreign countries and
2574-529: The Latin Alphabet is an adoption of ISO 9:1995 . It is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). GOST 52535.1-2006 Identification cards. Machine readable travel documents. Part 1. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO standard for travel documents. It was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013 ( see below ). The standard
2652-653: The National Administration for Geodesy and Cartography at the USSR Council of Ministers , GOST 16876-71 has been in service since 1973. Replaced by GOST 7.79-2000. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as an official standard of the COMECON . GOST 7.79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship, and Publishing–Rules for Transliteration of the Cyrillic Characters Using
2730-858: The Netherlands until Albert's death in 1936. The thirteen-year-old Behar was sent to live with a wealthy aunt in Egypt, where he continued his education at the English School in Cairo . He later attended Downing College, Cambridge , to study Russian. While in Cairo, he was close to his cousin Henri Curiel , who was later to become a leader of the Communist Democratic Movement for National Liberation in Egypt. In 1991, Blake said that his encounter with Curiel, who
2808-619: The OGPU was reincorporated into the NKVD . In 1954, the NKVD in turn became the KGB, which in 1991 became SVR and FSB. In 1996, the SVR RF issued a CD-ROM entitled Russian Foreign Intelligence: VChK–KGB–SVR , which claims to provide "a professional view on the history and development of one of the most powerful secret services in the world" where all services are presented as one evolving organization. Former Director of
2886-511: The Russian Federation until his death in 2020. He was not one of the Cambridge Five spies, although he associated with Donald Maclean and Kim Philby after reaching the Soviet Union. George Blake was born George Behar in Rotterdam , the Netherlands in 1922. He was the son of a Protestant Dutch mother, Catherine (née Beijderwellen), and an Egyptian father of Sephardi Jewish origin who
2964-526: The SVR RF Sergei Lebedev stated "there has not been any place on the planet where a KGB officer has not been". During their 80th anniversary celebration, Vladimir Putin went to SVR headquarters to meet with other former KGB/SVR chiefs Vladimir Kryuchkov , Leonid Shebarshin , Yevgeny Primakov , and Vyacheslav Trubnikov , as well as other agents, including the British double agent and ex-Soviet spy George Blake . The "Law on Foreign Intelligence"
3042-601: The SVR conflicted with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for directing Russian foreign policy. SVR director Yevgeni Primakov upstaged the foreign ministry by publishing warnings to the West not to interfere in the unification of Russia with other former Soviet republics and attacking the NATO extension as a threat to Russian security, whereas foreign minister Andrey Kozyrev was requesting different things. The rivalry ended in decisive victory for
3120-486: The SVR in 1997. The SVR is also authorized to negotiate anti-terrorist cooperation and intelligence-sharing arrangements with foreign intelligence agencies, and provides analysis and dissemination of intelligence to the Russian president . Any information pertaining to specific identities of staff employees (officers) of the SVR is legally classified as a state secret; since September 2018, the same applies to non-staff personnel (i.e., informers and recruited agents). SVR RF
3198-589: The SVR which was created by secret decree on 23 March 1997, and reached operational readiness in 1998. Units were deployed to the Russian embassies in Iraq at Baghdad, Iran and Syria at Damascus to support protection of diplomats and other tasks. Zaslon was criticized following the 19 December 2016 assassination in Ankara of Andrei Karlov who was the Russian ambassador to Turkey. According to senior SVR officer Sergei Tretyakov , he often sent intelligence officers to branches of
Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3276-516: The SVR, when Primakov replaced Kozyrev in January 1996 and brought with him a number of SVR officers to the foreign ministry of Russia. In September 1999, Yeltsin admitted that the SVR played a greater role in Russian foreign policy than the Foreign Ministry. It was reported that the SVR defined the Russian position on the transfer of nuclear technologies to Iran , NATO expansion, and modification of
3354-593: The Soviet Union's spy service, the MGB . In an interview, Blake was once asked: "Is there one incident that triggered your decision to effectively change sides?" Blake responded: It was the relentless bombing of small Korean villages by enormous American Flying Fortresses . Women and children and old people, because the young men were in the army. We might have been victims ourselves. It made me feel ashamed of belonging to these overpowering, technically superior countries fighting against what seemed to me defenceless people. I felt I
3432-733: The Soviet era, the SVR – then part of the KGB – handled covert political assassinations abroad". These activities reportedly continue. It was reported in September 2003 that an SVR RF agent in London was making preparations to assassinate Boris Berezovsky with a binary weapon , which is why Berezovsky had been speedily granted asylum in Britain. GRU officers who killed Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar in 2004 reportedly claimed that supporting SVR agents let them down by not evacuating them in time, so they have been arrested by Qatar authorities. Former KGB agent Igor
3510-555: The Soviets that none were executed based on the intelligence that he had provided, assurances he accepted. However, according to NPR, "Blake gave up the identities of hundreds of British spies, some of whom were executed." In the 1992 CNN series Cold War , former KGB general Oleg Kalugin remarked, "George Blake had that innocent mind, in a sense. He's still a very naïve man. He didn't want to know that many people he betrayed were executed. And I think we discussed this subject at one point, and he wouldn't believe it. He would say, 'Well, I
3588-559: The US". The SVR RF actively recruits Russian citizens who live in foreign countries. "Once the SVR officer targets a Russian émigré for recruitment, they approach them, usually at their place of residence and make an effort to reach an understanding," said former FSB officer Aleksander Litvinenko . These claims have not been confirmed by the official SVR website, which states that only Russian citizens without dual citizenship can become SVR RF agents. Russian intelligence no longer recruits people on
3666-574: The US, the SVR recommends to the president which policy options are preferable. Since 2012, the President of the Russian Federation can personally issue any secret orders to the SVR RF without consulting the parliament of national legislature, the Federal Assembly , which consists of the State Duma and Federation Council . According to Article 12 of the 1996 Federal Law "On Foreign Intelligence", "overall direction" of external intelligence activity
3744-437: The United Kingdom to face charges that were political in nature. In November 1966, his wife Gillian, with whom he had three children, began divorce proceedings against him, and in March 1967 Mr Justice Orr granted a decree nisi in Blake's absence, on the grounds that the conviction of a spouse for treason can amount to cruelty or constructive desertion. Custody of their three sons was awarded to Gillian. This caused Blake
3822-427: The basic letters and punctuation found on English-language keyboards: no diacritics or unusual letters are required, although the interpunct character (·) may be used to avoid ambiguity. This particular standard is part of the BGN/PCGN romanization system which was developed by the United States Board on Geographic Names and by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use . The portion of
3900-436: The basis of Communist ideals, which was the "first pillar" of KGB recruitment, said analyst Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy . "The second pillar of recruitment is love for Russia. In the West, only Russian immigrants have feelings of filial obedience toward Russia. That’s precisely why [the SVR] works with them so often. A special division was created just for this purpose. It regularly holds Russian immigrant conferences, which Putin
3978-399: The country. They smuggled Blake across the English Channel in a camper van , then drove across northern Europe and through West Germany to the Helmstedt–Marienborn border crossing . Having safely crossed the border without incident, Blake met his handlers in East Germany and completed his escape to the Soviet Union. Pottle and Randle were not prosecuted until 1991. Their defence was
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#17328549439434056-448: The course of nine years, Blake is said to have betrayed details of some forty MI6 agents to the KGB, destroying most of MI6's operations in Eastern Europe , although this remains unsubstantiated. Blake later said of this: "I don't know what I handed over because it was so much." In the same TV interview, Blake claimed to have betrayed 500 British agents. In 1959 Blake became aware of a Central Intelligence Agency mole inside GRU , and
4134-443: The introduction of a dedicated Latin alphabet for writing the Russian language. Such an alphabet would not necessarily bind closely to the traditional Cyrillic orthography. The transition from Cyrillic to Latin has been proposed several times throughout history (especially during the Soviet era), but was never conducted on a large scale, except for informal romanizations in the computer era. The most serious possibility of adoption of
4212-430: The liquidation of defectors, emigres, and other assorted 'enemies of the people'. In 1922, after the creation of the State Political Directorate (GPU) and its merger with the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the RSFSR, foreign intelligence was conducted by the GPU Foreign Department, and between December 1923 and July 1934 by the Foreign Department of Joint State Political Administration or OGPU. In July 1934,
4290-406: The marriage because of Blake's Jewish background and the relationship ended. In 1946, he was posted to Hamburg and put in charge of the interrogation of German U-boat captains. In 1947, the Navy sent Blake to study languages, including Russian, at Downing College, Cambridge, where his fellow students included the future foreign policy analyst Michael MccGwire . He was posted thereafter to
4368-426: The name with which he lived from 1965. He is commemorated on a sculpture honouring intelligence officers outside the SVR's headquarters in Moscow. Desmond Bagley 's 1971 novel The Freedom Trap and its screen version, John Huston 's The Mackintosh Man from 1973, were loosely based on Blake's prison escape. For his novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy John le Carré used Blake's foreign background ("half
4446-406: The new system and the old one, citizens who wanted to retain the old version of a name's transliteration, especially one that had been in the old pre-2010 passport, could apply to the local migration office before they acquired a new passport. The standard was abandoned in 2013. In 2013, Order No. 320 of the Federal Migration Service of Russia came into force. It states that all personal names in
4524-410: The passports must be transliterated by using the ICAO system , which is published in Doc 9303 " Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 3 ". The system differs from the GOST R 52535.1-2006 system in two things: ц is transliterated into ts (as in pre-2010 systems), ъ is transliterated into ie (a novelty). In a second sense, the romanization or Latinization of Russian may also indicate
4602-467: The plan as well, as he had suggested springing Blake to Randle in 1962 when they were both still in prison. Their motives for helping Blake to escape were their belief that the 42-year sentence was "inhuman" and because of a personal liking of Blake. Several sources also state that the plan was financed by film director Tony Richardson . Bourke had smuggled a walkie-talkie to Blake to communicate with him while in prison. On 22 October 1966, Blake broke
4680-436: The system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports , transliteration was based on French rules but without diacritics and so all names were transliterated in a French-style system . In 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports , a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs , but
4758-447: The system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST R 52535.1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports and introduces its own system of transliteration. In 2010, the Federal Migration Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all personal names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST R 52535.1-2006. Because of some differences between
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#17328549439434836-417: The then director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of the Russian Federation, wrote in the book's foreword that despite the book's being devoted to the past, it is about the present as well. He also wrote that Blake, the 85-year-old colonel of foreign intelligence, "still takes an active role in the affairs of the secret service". In 2012, Blake celebrated his 90th birthday, still living in Moscow on
4914-545: The use of diacritics) that faithfully represents the original and allows for reverse transliteration for Cyrillic text in any contemporary language. The UNGEGN , a Working Group of the United Nations , in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71 . It may be found in some international cartographic products. American Library Association and Library of Congress (ALA-LC) romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in
4992-591: The world "in a situation when the danger of nuclear war and the resulting self-destruction of humankind again have been put on the agenda by irresponsible politicians. It's a true battle between good and evil." Blake died on 26 December 2020, aged 98, in Moscow. The RIA Novosti news agency first reported Blake's death, citing Russia's SVR foreign intelligence agency . "We received some bitter news—the legendary George Blake passed away," it said. Russian President Vladimir Putin , himself an ex- KGB agent, expressed his "deep condolences" to Blake's family and friends. In
5070-441: Was a spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union . He became a communist and decided to work for the MGB while a prisoner during the Korean War . Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London in 1966 and fled to the Soviet Union where he resided until dissolution in 1991. He continued to reside in
5148-456: Was a decade older and already a Marxist , shaped his views in later life. When the Second World War broke out, Behar was back in the Netherlands. In 1940, Germany invaded and quickly defeated the Dutch military. Behar was interned but released because he was only 17, and joined the Dutch resistance as a courier. In 1942, he escaped from the Netherlands and travelled to Britain via Spain and Gibraltar, reaching London in January 1943. There, he
5226-409: Was a naturalised British subject. He was named George after George V of the United Kingdom . His father, Albert Behar, served in the British Army during the First World War. While Albert received the Meritorious Service Medal , he embellished his war service when recounting it to his wife and children, and concealed his Jewish background until his death. The Behars lived a comfortable existence in
5304-528: Was on the wrong side ... that it would be better for humanity if the Communist system prevailed, that it would put an end to war. However, in his first interview, in 1990, with Tom Bower for 'The Confession', a BBC TV documentary, Blake said that he had been tempted towards communism during his Russian course in Cambridge while serving with MI6, and had been finally convinced while reading Karl Marx 's Das Kapital during his imprisonment in North Korea. Following his release in 1953, Blake returned to Britain as
5382-407: Was passed by the State Duma and the Federation Council in late 1995 and signed into effect by the then-President Boris Yeltsin on 10 January 1996. The law authorizes the SVR to carry out the following: The SVR sends to the Russian president daily digests of intelligence, similar to the President's Daily Brief produced by the United States Intelligence Community in the US. However, unlike in
5460-405: Was possibly instrumental in exposing P. S. Popov , who was executed in 1960. Although Blake's espionage during the Cold War is famous and has regularly been pored over, it has been in a less detailed way than the Cambridge Five spy ring, because "Blake was never part of this [elite] class-ridden inner circle", according to an article by The Guardian after Blake's death. "Born in Rotterdam to
5538-457: Was reunited with his mother and his sisters, who had fled at the start of the war. In 1943, his mother decided to change the family name from Behar to Blake. After he reached Britain, Blake joined the Royal Navy as a sub-lieutenant before being recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in 1944. For the rest of the war, Blake was employed in the Dutch Section. He intended to marry an MI6 secretary, Iris Peake , but her family prevented
5616-590: Was signed in 1992. This secret treaty covers cooperation of the GRU GSh VS RF and the SVR RF with the China's Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department . In 2003 it was reported that SVR RF trained Iraqi spies when Russia collaborated with Saddam Hussein . The SVR also has cooperation agreements with the secret police services of certain former Soviet republics, such as Azerbaijan and Belarus . "In
5694-504: Was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/ IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, but directly refers to the ICAO romanization ( see below ). Names on street and road signs in the Soviet Union were romanized according to GOST 10807-78 (tables 17, 18), which was amended by newer Russian GOST R 52290-2004 (tables Г.4, Г.5), the romanizations in both the standards are practically identical. ISO/R 9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968,
5772-559: Was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages. ISO 9:1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R 9:1968, which it deprecates; for Russian, the two are the same except in the treatment of five modern letters. ISO 9:1995 is the first language-independent, univocal system of one character for one character equivalents (by
5850-479: Was thrown into turmoil when Fry left the production following a bad review. Alfred Hitchcock planned to make a film, The Short Night , based on Blake, but died before doing so. In 2015, BBC Storyville made a documentary about Blake at the age of 92, which included interviews with Blake. The film was titled Storyville: Masterspy of Moscow – George Blake . In 2021 the BBC radio play Breaking Blake by Barnaby Kay
5928-472: Was told that this would not happen!' It did happen. He was not told." Blake married again, in 1968, to Ida Mikhailovna Kareyeva with whom he had one child. He also reconciled with his other children. In late 2007, Blake was awarded the Order of Friendship on his 85th birthday by Vladimir Putin . Blake's later book, Transparent Walls (2006), was reported by the daily Vzglyad ("The View"). Sergei Lebedev ,
6006-551: Was tortured or blackmailed by the North Koreans. Without thinking about what he was saying, he stated that he had switched sides voluntarily. He then gave his MI6 interrogators a full confession. The maximum sentence for any one offence under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911 is 14 years, but his activities were divided into five time periods charged as five offences and, in May 1961 after an in camera trial at
6084-529: Was written by the SVR leadership itself and adopted in August 1992. This Law provided conditions for "penetration by checkists of all levels of the government and economy", since it stipulated that "career personnel may occupy positions in ministries, departments, establishments, enterprises and organizations in accordance with the requirements of this law without compromising their association with foreign intelligence agencies." A new "Law on Foreign Intelligence Organs"
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