My new book is about the witch hunt that takes place in the British intelligence services following the defection of Kim Philby in 1963, so a story in The Guardian caught my eye: A Moscow Square is to be renamed Philby Square. Naturally, I was a little disappointed that the Moscow authorities and President Putin didn’t decide to hold off until October 2019 and the publication of ‘Witchfinder’. I wonder how many Muscovites who cross the square will have any idea why it’s called Philby Ploschad. Another cold war spy, George Blake, was honoured last year. Blake is still alive and unrepentant. At 95, he is the last of the great British ‘traitors’. A great favourite with Russia’s ex-KGB President, it seems. To mark his honour, Blake issued a statement through the Russian Foreign Ministry, calling for Russian spies to ‘save the world in a situation when the danger of nuclear war and the resulting self-destruction of humankind again have been put on the agenda by irresponsible politicians.’
‘It’s a true battle between good and evil,’ he added. Still ‘useful’ to the Soviet-Russian state more than fifty years after his escape from prison in Britain.