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| Putin's school of sexpionage: History is littered with gullible men who fell prey to the seductive charms of the KGB's Mata Haris |
| 2023-04-03 |
| [MAIL] At the height of the Cold War, the British Embassy on the embankment of Saint Sophia in Moscow was the ornate, imposing embodiment of political and diplomatic prestige and status. Built in the 1890s by a Russian sugar merchant, the entrance featured a heavily panelled Scottish baronial hallway and red-carpeted ornamental staircase. The first floor was dominated by a vast white and gold ballroom with a fine parquet floor, used for flamboyant parties and balls reminiscent of a scene from Anna Karenina. Across the river and facing the mansion was the Kremlin wall, punctuated by watchtowers. No other embassy had such a clear view of the very heart of the Soviet empire, which is why an irritated Joseph Stalin used to rage as he looked across the red-brick wall at the capitalist enemy. One of the final acts of his rule on Christmas Eve in 1952 was to order Britain to find another residence. Three months later Stalin was dead, and the British refused the offer of a new embassy on a bigger site. For the KGB, the British Embassy was a prime target for undermining, destabilising and disrupting UK interests. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |