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London, UK (CNN) – British-Soviet double agent George Blake has died at the age of 98, according to Russia’s state-run RIA news agency.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) confirmed the news and described the former intelligence officer as “legendary” for his role in uncovering the identities of hundreds of Western agents in Eastern Europe in the 1950s, some of which were executed as a result.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said Blake had “written books and films about him.” The statement added: “In intelligence, he was highly respected and appreciated. He himself joked:” I am a foreign car that has adapted to Russian roads … “Now this foreign car has completed almost a century.
Blake was the latest in a series of British spies whose covert action against the Soviet Union insulted the intelligence establishment when he was discovered at the height of the Cold War.
Born on November 11, 1922 in Rotterdam, Blake moved to England in 1942 and transferred to the Dutch division of British MI6 in August 1944.
Blake was revealed as a Soviet spy in 1961 and was sentenced to 42 years in prison at Warmwood Scrubs, London. However, he escaped in 1966 with the help of his other colleagues and two peace activists, was smuggled out of Britain in a pickup truck, and then managed to cross Western Europe undetected and cross the Iron Curtain into East Berlin.
And he spent the rest of his life in the Soviet Union, and then in Russia, where he was honored as a hero.
Reflecting on his life, Blake said in an interview with Reuters in Moscow in 1991 that he believed the world was at the beginning of communism.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his “deepest condolences” to the friends and family of the Cold War double agent.
“Please accept my condolences,” the Russian president said in a statement posted on the Kremlin’s website.
He added: “Colonel Blake was a brilliant professional with particular vitality and courage. Through years of hard and hard work, he has made a truly invaluable contribution to ensuring strategic parity and maintaining peace on this planet.”
Putin concluded his statement by saying: “The fond memory of this legendary man will forever remain in our hearts.”
