Gordon Corera

How Spies Target Parliament: Influence And The Value Of Westminster Gossip A recent wave of alerts, convictions and the furore over the dropping of an alleged Chinese espionage case all serve as a reminder that Parliament ...

Here’s a piece from the latest @thehousemag.bsky.social from the esteemed @gordoncorera.bsky.social on how spies target Westminster www.politicshome.com/news/article...

4th May @gordoncorera.bsky.social discusses The Spy in the Archive with @arusbridger.bsky.social General booking opens 1st Feb www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/literature/e...

‘The Spy in the Archive’ Review: A Dossier on the KGB After a stalled career in espionage, a Soviet spy was assigned to an archive. What he learned made him decide to smuggle its secrets out.

"Mr. Corera is well-versed in the cloak-and-dagger world. His experience with the material lends weight to a thoroughly engrossing tale."

Congratulations to @gordoncorera.bsky.social and THE SPY IN THE ARCHIVE for this incredible review in @wsj.com! Check it out:

The book tells the remarkable story of Vasili Mitrokhin, an introverted, obsessive archivist who stole the KGB's secrets. Turned away by the CIA, he was brought out by MI6. The book also explores how the KGB never died and how that led to the rise of Vladimir Putin and the world we live in today.

"The Spy in the Archive: How one man tried to kill the KGB" is out TODAY in the US and I'm so pleased to see this review in the New York Times. "What makes Corera’s book original is that he shows the U.S.S.R.’s demise from the vantage point of its security services."

The evolving world of MI6 Technological shifts, alliance politics, and fractious great-power competition make the United Kingdom’s secret service’s work under its new Chief more complex than ever.

“The job of running the British Secret Service has changed enormously since Cumming’s day, but there are also elements of what sits in Metreweli’s overflowing in-tray that the first Chief would still have recognised.”

Great essay by @gordoncorera.bsky.social:
engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

BBC Radio 4 - Currently, Playing Spies Gordon Corera investigates Russia's new front line of amateur espionage.

Spying is changing and for BBC Radio 4, I've investigated the world of disposable agents for hire used by Russia. Amateurs but still dangerous with links to criminality, they are responsible for surveillance and sabotage and perhaps even thefts from rural farms....
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Currently - Playing Spies - BBC Sounds Gordon Corera investigates Russia's new front line of amateur espionage.

I spoke to @gordoncorera.bsky.social for #Radio4's "Currently", about #Russia's use of #criminal gangs in its #covert activities. It features the excellent @drichterova.bsky.social, Dominic Murphy and others.
Worth a listen.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
@cfs-rusi.bsky.social @soc-ace.bsky.social

Just announced! Our first @restisclassified.bsky.social live show......Join myself and David on Jan 31st for an evening exploring where spy fact meets fiction. Pre-sale tickets for members available from today therestisclassified.supportingcast.fm

Tickets on general sale from tomorrow.....

The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB Gordon Corera tells the enthralling story of Vasili Mitrokhin, an unsuccessful Soviet spy whom the KGB demoted in 1956 to the role of archivist.

"Corera, a former security correspondent for the BBC, tells the enthralling story of Vasili Mitrokhin, an unsuccessful Soviet spy whom the KGB demoted in 1956 to the role of archivist."

Check out this informative review of THE SPY IN THE ARCHIVE by @gordoncorera.bsky.social in @foreignaffairs.com!

The latest episodes of the @restisclassified.bsky.social podcast with @gordoncorera.bsky.social and David McCloskey is a fascinating look inside Mossad's sprawling campaign to infiltrate and weaponise pagers used by Hezbollah.

October 7th I'm talking to @jasonburke2.bsky.social
about his new book "The Revolutionists: The Remarkable True Story of The Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s" Come along to the Kiln Theatre, London if you want to hear some crazy stories about wild plots

intelligencesquared.com/events/the-r...

Putin, the once and future Chekist It is only by understanding the phenomenon of Chekism that you can truly understand the Russian leader.

Putin, the once and future Chekist | @gordoncorera.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/essays/putin...

This week on @restisclassified.bsky.social podcast we look at the remarkable story of sabotaging the Nazi nuke effort. Operation Gunnerside was organised by SOE but carried out by Norwegians and led by Joachim Rønneberg - one of the bravest, most impressive people I've had the fortune to meet

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