2016
The KGB's Middle East Files: Leaking thousands of documents
In 1992, Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist, defected to the West with a trove of top secret documents from the Soviet intelligence agency, which helped expose many Russian agents and assets in Israel and elsewhere. This series of articles explores these documents and brings to light the secrets they revealed. Part 1 of 5.
No one seemed to suspect the mustachioed elderly man walking on the streets of a capital in the Baltics, towards the British Embassy's gates. Years of skillfully concealing his feelings successfully covered up his internal storm of emotions. He had already tried to interest the Americans in the secret documents in his possession but had failed: The CIA representative at the US Embassy had thought his story was so far-fetched that they suspected it was all a deliberate KGB ploy and sent him on his way. Would the British be the ones to accept the secret project of his life?
The KGB's Middle East Files: Leaking thousands of documents
In 1992, Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist, defected to the West with a trove of top secret documents from the Soviet intelligence agency, which helped expose many Russian agents and assets in Israel and elsewhere. This series of articles explores these documents and brings to light the secrets they revealed. Part 1 of 5.
Ronen Bergman|Published: 10.28.16 , 07:46
No one seemed to suspect the mustachioed elderly man walking on the streets of a capital in the Baltics, towards the British Embassy's gates. Years of skillfully concealing his feelings successfully covered up his internal storm of emotions. He had already tried to interest the Americans in the secret documents in his possession but had failed: The CIA representative at the US Embassy had thought his story was so far-fetched that they suspected it was all a deliberate KGB ploy and sent him on his way. Would the British be the ones to accept the secret project of his life?
He entered the British Embassy and quietly mumbled to the clerk, "I want to talk to someone with authority." Several minutes later, he was approached by a young woman who appeared to be a junior diplomat and was asked for his name.
"Vasili Mitrokhin," the man replied, and he began telling her his incredible story: how he had become a senior employee at the KGB archives and was privy to operation files and top secrets; how he copied thousands of sensitive documents over the years and smuggled them from KGB headquarters; and where that massive treasure was now.
The young British diplomat stared at Mitrokhin in amazement, but despite having just heard one of the most extraordinary stories in her life, she responded in the appropriate British manner: "Would you like a cup of tea?" She had understood the meaning of his story. If what he was saying was true, this could be one of the greatest leaks from any intelligence organization ever. But what if it was all a lie? And what if it was actually a Russian ploy?
She asked for proof, and Mitrokhin presented some of the documents in his possession, which included details about the "illegals"—the KGB's elite spies. These documents, which included some of the top secrets of Soviet intelligence, along with a photo of Mitrokhin that the diplomat took, aroused great interest in London.
At the next meeting, about a month later, he brought about 2,000 documents. A higher-ranked representative from Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (more commonly known as MI6), who had come in especially from London, reviewed the material and realized that the man in front of him was nothing less than an intelligence gold mine.
Within a short period of time, the MI6 launched a secret operation in which Mitrokhin and his family were smuggled to Britain. They landed in the country along with the KGB's top secrets: tens of thousands of documents that Mitrokhin had copied and hidden in milk barrels and other containers in the floor of his two dachas, one of them in the suburbs of Moscow. Only a few people in Britain—led by then-Prime Minister John Major, who personally approved the operation—were aware of the package that had landed in their country that day.
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https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4869986,00.html