Soviet intelligence officer, ex-British intelligence officer George Blake died of natural causes, not coronavirus, Sergei Ivanov, head of the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service, said on December 26.
According to him, Blake’s blood pressure suddenly rose. The ambulance arrived quickly, the doctors normalized the patient’s well-being. However, after a while, Blake felt ill again and died a few minutes later, reports Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
The legendary Soviet intelligence officer died on December 26 at the age of 99.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the intelligence officer’s family and noted that Blake was a legendary man who made an invaluable contribution to ensuring strategic parity and maintaining peace on the planet.
George Blake (while serving at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations – Georgy Ivanovich Bechter) was born in 1922 in the Netherlands. During the war, he served as a volunteer in the Navy, in 1944 he was transferred to the Dutch section of British intelligence.
After World War II, he joined MI6 and recruited agents for the British intelligence services in Eastern Europe. He transmitted information from Berlin to the USSR about the MI6 agents he had recruited.
Blake was arrested in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison due to the betrayal of a Polish intelligence officer who reported information about a Soviet agent in MI6 to the CIA. After serving four years in prison, he escaped and, with the help of friends, moved to Moscow.
He was awarded the rank of colonel of foreign intelligence.
Awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner, laureate of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (2007) for his autobiography “Transparent Walls”.