In 1966, George Blake escaped from prison and was later driven to East Berlin inside a wooden box attached under a car.
George Blake, a former British intelligence officer who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union and passed some of the most coveted Western secrets to Moscow, has died in Russia. He was 98. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known as SVR, announced his death Saturday in a statement, which didn’t give any details. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences, hailing Blake as a « brilliant professional » and a man of « remarkable courage. » As a double agent, Blake exposed a Western plan to eavesdrop on Soviet communications from an underground tunnel into East Berlin. He also unmasked scores of British agents in Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe, some of whom were executed. In an interview with the BBC in 1990, Blake said he estimated that he betrayed more than 500 Western agents but he denied suggestions that 42 of them had lost their lives as a result of his actions. Blake has lived in Russia since his daring escape from a British prison in 1966 and was given the rank of Russian intelligence colonel. Born in the Netherlands, Blake joined British intelligence during World War II. He was posted to Korea when the war there erupted in 1950 and was detained by the Communist north.
