Item BRINK OF APOCALYPSE 3/3 - Interview with Oleg Gordievsky, KGB Colonel, London and Moscow, Double Agent working for British Intelligence, [2007]

Typescript transcript of interview with Oleg Gordievsky, KGB Colonel, London and Moscow and Double Agent working for British Intelligence. Subjects include Operation RYAN, with reference to the KGB; cynicism by junior officers of Operation RYAN; why Operation RYAN began in 1981; concerns about Ronald Reagan and American determination from USSR intelligence; increased suspicion amongst all the Warsaw Pact intelligence; USSR reaction to Reagan’s ideological speeches including his “Evil Empire” speech ;the shooting down of Korean Airlines flight KAL 007, 1 Sep 1983 and the reaction to the shooting down; Communication between USSR and United States regarding KAL 007-1 Sep 1983; Gordievsky’s role as a double agent and information passed to the British; his meetings with John Scarlet, MI6 officer; Yuri Andropov’s attitudes to communism and the spirit of USSR aggression disappearing throughout the 1980s, how the illness of Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary 1984-1985, changed the atmosphere of the USSR; Moscow reaction to the invasion of Grenada, Oct-Dec 1983, by the United States; tension after Able Archer exercise; lack of nuclear strikes between the USA and USSR during the Cold War; comparison between Able Archer and Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962; the belief of the USSR that Reagan wanted a nuclear war; Gordievsky’s escape from the USSR in 1985. 56pp.