EXCLUSIVE: The Spy Who Smuggled Gordievsky Out of Russia

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

*Declassified Club exclusive: SUBSCRIBE to listen to the full interview* What does it take to smuggle the West’s most valuable Russian agent out of the Soviet Union, under the noses of the KGB? How do you lose a KGB surveillance team on the road from Moscow, while hiding a defector in the boot of your car? And how did the MI6 team manage to sneak Gordievsky past the Russian sniffer dogs on the Finnish border? Listen as Raymond Asquith - the MI6 Officer who led Oleg Gordievsky’s dramatic escape from Moscow in 1985 - recounts the nerve-racking details of the operation, the split-second improvisations that kept it alive, and the extraordinary legacy of the man once called the West’s most important spy. Plus, subscribe to the Declassified Club for access to the Cocktails Masterclass livestream. ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your free trial at ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠⁠ - go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, quarterly livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: ⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up⁠ ⁠ ------------------- Order a signed edition of Gordon's latest book, The Spy in the Archive, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Email: [email protected] Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@triclassified⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Callum Hill Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor The full episode is available to members of the declassified club, sign up at www.therestisclassified.com⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com.
0:17.3	Music Hello, rest of classified listeners, David and Gordon here.
0:28.7	If you've been enjoying our latest series on the absolutely fascinating life of Ole Gordievski,
0:34.1	we thought we'd treat you to an exclusive extract from our latest declassified club interview with the man who actually snuck Britain's most valuable spy out of Russia.
0:45.3	That's right.
0:46.1	I mean, the story of Gordievsky escaping from Moscow and then getting over the border into Finland is a wild tale. And we've been speaking to the man who actually
0:58.1	ran that operation on the ground. Raymond Asquith, who was the MI6 head of station in Moscow,
1:04.9	who was driving the car as it picked up Gordievski and it's a kind of remarkable interview
1:10.0	to just get an insight
1:10.9	into what it's like to be on the ground under that kind of intense pressure. It's an absolutely
1:17.2	fascinating insight into what it's really like to be at the heart of an exfiltration. Well, that's
1:22.1	right. And speaking of people who ran stations in Moscow, Gordon, for members who signed up at the Rest is Classified.com,
1:31.5	but could it make the live cocktail masterclass that we ran last night where we cooked up some
1:39.1	espionage themed drinks with two former CIA officers, one of whom ran the CIA's Moscow station at the height
1:46.7	of the Cold War. If you didn't make that, you can access the recording by clicking the link
1:51.3	in your Declassified Club email or signing up to the Declassified Club at the Rest is Classified.com.
1:58.3	Never too late to make some cocktails. Or too early, like mine yesterday.
2:01.9	Or too early. It's cocktail time somewhere. But first, here's the extract from that interview
2:06.5	about Oleg Gordievsky.
2:12.2	When exactly did you first set eyes on Oleg Gordievsky?
	...

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