DETECTIVES are investigating an alleged attempt to kill a former Russian spy chief who defected to Britain.
Oleg Gordievsky, a former colonel in the KGB, was taken from his Surrey home to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November. He reportedly said he believed he was the target of an assassination attempt and had been poisoned.
A Surrey P
olice spokeswoman said last night: "Surrey Police were called to an address in Surrey on November 2, 2007, at around 11.30am following concerns for the safety of a man.
"The man, who was 69 at the time, was taken by ambulance to the Royal Surrey County Hospital for treatment.
"Surrey Police is continuing to investigate allegations by this man and it would not be appropriate to comment further until our investigation is complete."
Gordievsky, who became the highest-ranking Soviet spy ever to defect to the West, escaped to Britain in 1985. The double agent was MI5's greatest asset between 1982 and 1985, when he passed information to British security while serving as KGB resident and bureau chief in London, running Soviet intelligence-gathering and espionage in the UK.
Even though he was disenchanted with the Communist system, Gordievsky still had to get information for the Kremlin so that he would not be suspected. In the Seventies and Eighties he was involved in a scheme to recruit left-wing Scottish Labour MPs in the hope they might be useful to the Soviet cause. The spies focused on West Lothian Labour MP Tam Dalyell and Leith MP Ron Brown.
Dalyell was rejected as a potential recruit because he had "too many principles" and would not betray his country. Brown seemed more promising, but the KGB's best spies were stumped by his broad Leith accent, and they had to ditch the plan.
In 1985, Gordievsky's cover was blown – possibly by US double agent Aldrich Ames – and he was called back to Moscow and kept under close surveillance, but managed to escape.
Last October, the former Soviet colonel was honoured by the Queen in recognition of his services to UK security. His honour was announced last June as tensions between Russia and the UK returned to their highest since the Soviet era, in the wake of the murder of former security agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 and President Vladimir Putin's threat to target Europe with nuclear missiles.
Gordievsky said he was certain he was the victim of a similar Kremlin-inspired assassination attempt to that which he claimed befell Litvinenko.
After falling unconscious for 34 hours, he says he spent two weeks in a private clinic and was initially left partially paralysed. He still has no feeling in his fingers.
"I've known for some time that I am on the assassination list drawn up by rogue elements in Moscow," he said. "It was obvious to me I had been poisoned."
A security source in the former Soviet Union said: "The KGB will never let anyone go. They will follow you to the ends of the earth."
The full article contains 517 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
