Gordon Corera

Putin had 'rather sinister looking eyes' and said: ‘It’s the duty of people like you to stand between the terrorist and their victim. And you failed.’
"So it wasn’t a successful meeting," Eliza Manningham-Buller recalls.
A taster of the interview is here for non-members. linktr.ee/triclassified

Who was the first foreign leader to visit Britain's COBR crisis room? The surprising answer is Putin. In 2005 he was briefed on the 7/7 terror attack and criticised MI5 head Eliza Manningham-Buller for not stopping it. Full interview with Eliza for club members therestisclassified.supportingcast.fm

Thanks George for the comments. And I will definitely pass that on to Mr McCloskey…….

UK launched huge operation to find suspected Russian double agent in MI6 Exclusive: Operation Wedlock lasted up to 20 years and took MI5 teams across world amid panic about ‘another Philby’

More detail on the MI6 molehunt I first revealed in my book "The Spy in the Archive' coming out of the Guardian today...... www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I had a great chat with @gordoncorera.bsky.social about his latest book #thespyinthearchive.

@coldwarpod.bsky.social episode comes out this Saturday!

Buy the book here and support @coldwarpod.bsky.social uk.bookshop.org/a/1549/97800...

Blaise Metreweli appointed next Chief of MI6. With field experience in the Middle East (and Whitehall) and focus on tech (she’s currently running the Q tech division) it’s a sign that in turbulent times an understanding of professional spy skills and how to maintain them in the digital age are vital

The KGB man who betrayed the USSR and smuggled secrets to Britain The Spy in the Archive, a new biography of Vasily Mitrokhin by Gordon Corera, relates his daring deception and flight to the West

Always a bit nervous for first book reviews and particularly when I saw this one was by Prof. Christopher Andrew who worked with Mitrokhin so something of a relief to read it......the picture (from the book) is of Mitrokhin and his son during their exfiltration.
www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fi...

REVEALED: MI6 ran a molehunt in the 1990s after a CIA lead the Russians may have recruited an MI6 officer. Fears were of 'another Philby'. The hunt went on for years and was ultimately labelled 'inconclusive'. More details in the "The Spy in the Archive" - out in the UK next week

How did MI6 exfiltrate former KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin using a yellow minibus? And how did it nearly go wrong? The story - told for the first time on @restisclassified.bsky.social
this week with the full detail in "The Spy in the Archive" out in the UK next week. linktr.ee/triclassified

Thanks for enjoying the podcast! The US version of the book is not out till January so you may have to hang on a little!

This week on @restisclassified.bsky.social a very special story for me - that of Vasili Mitrokhin, the archivist who escaped with the KGB's deepest secrets thanks to a wild MI6 exfiltration. It's the subject of my book "The Spy in the Archive" out in the UK next week. linktr.ee/triclassified

🚨NEW EPISODE🚨

The Legacy of Edward Snowden (Ep 6)

Join David McCloskey and @gordoncorera.bsky.social in the final instalment of their incredible series of the life and legacy of Edward Snowden...

The Rest Is Classified | The Declassified Club

I also get the chance to reveal a small clandestine mission of my own. The first two episodes are out now for everyone but if you want to binge all 6 (!) then we've just launched the 'The Declassified club' where early access is one of the many benefits. therestisclassified.supportingcast.fm

YouTube video by The Rest Is Classified How Edward Snowden Hacked The NSA (Snowden Episode 1)

Snowden's actions left a lasting legacy inl the relationship between citizens, governments and tech companies. And his own journey ends up in Moscow.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pAI...

This week on "The Rest is Classified" we start a series on Edward Snowden. As my discussion with David reveals, he can be a controversial subject. But more than a decade on, his story remains consequential in what it tells us about privacy, technology and surveillance linktr.ee/triclassified

What connects Michael Caine and Frank Sinatra? They both delved into the world of spies and mind control in The Manchurian Candidate and The Ipcress File.This week on @restisclassified.bsky.social podcast we finish our journey into the dark world of the CIA’s MKULTRA program linktr.ee/triclassified

🚨NEW EPISODE🚨

CIA Mind Control: Sex, Drugs and Mysterious Deaths

In the third episode of our mind-bending MK Ultra series, David and @gordoncorera.bsky.social explore the bizarre story of how the CIA:

🏠Funded a brothel in San Francisco
☕️Spiked coffee with LSD

Link in replies👇

His intelligence helped the West understand the paranoia in Moscow at a dangerous time in the 1980s. There was a risk of unintended conflict and Gordievsky's intelligence helped both Thatcher and Reagan take a more nuanced approach. He would later meet Reagan in the Oval Office

I was fortunate enough to get to know him over the years and talk to him about his remarkable life. He did not decide to betray the KGB for money or out of petty grievance but from a deep seated belief that he did not want to serve what he saw as a 'criminal' regime.

Farewell to one of the most important spies of the Cold War. Oleg Gordievsky has died in the UK. A KGB officer who spied for MI6, he supplied vital intelligence that helped manage tensions between the West and the Soviet Union in the 80s. Nothing suspicious to his passing, I understand.

What's so important about Greenland? This week on "The Rest is Classified" podcast @restisclassified.bsky.social we look at its secret history, a wild story featuring under ice bases, crashed nuclear bombers and an early warning radar station which I visited back in 2008 - linktr.ee/triclassified

An act of deadly sabotage carried out by French intelligence.......on Greenpeace. This week on "The Rest is Classified" @restisclassified.bsky.social we look at the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand and who takes the blame when an operation goes wrong. linktr.ee/triclassified

Some news about my next book…..

In a special episode of “The Rest is Classified” we take a look at the question of whether or not TikTok is a national security threat and if so how…….

linktr.ee/triclassified

See former CIA officer David McCloskey in conversation with
@gordoncorera.bsky.social, his @restisclassified.bsky.social co-host, at @waterstones.bsky.social Trafalgar Square on Tuesday 28th January for his upcoming novel #TheSeventhFloor.

Secure your tickets 🎫 ow.ly/TFAA50Uwu9O

Listen through links here or wherever you get your podcasts. linktr.ee/triclassified

For those recovering from Christmas festivities, The Rest is Classified presents the wild story of Mansfield Cumming, the first head of MI6. It’s a story of secret inks, disguises and personal tragedy. And some (but not all) of his traditions live on in the British Secret Service today.

Thanks Sheila. I can never read enough about Winkie the pigeon and his exploits. A true hero!

Two weeks in to @restisclassified.bsky.social and our 1st emergency pod is out looking at events in Damascus. Myself and co-host David McCloskey explain what led to the Assad regime falling so fast and what David’s successors as CIA Syria analysts will be looking at now.

linktr.ee/triclassified

This time on The Rest is Classified we look at the remarkable tale of the first CIA teams into Afghanistan in the days immediately after 9/11 - a story which at times is more like something out of the Wild West. But which also raises question about where the West's intervention would lead…..