EXCLUSIVE: The Spy Who Smuggled Gordievsky Out of Russia

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: The Rest Is Classified
Episode Title: EXCLUSIVE: The Spy Who Smuggled Gordievsky Out of Russia
Release Date: September 25, 2025
Hosts: David McCloskey and Gordon Corera
Special Guest: Raymond Asquith (former MI6 Moscow Station Chief)

Theme:
This episode offers an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most daring and dramatic MI6 operations of the Cold War: the exfiltration of British double agent Oleg Gordievsky from Moscow to safety. David and Gordon extract vivid first-hand memories from Raymond Asquith, the British intelligence officer who personally led and executed Gordievsky’s escape—providing listeners with a true-to-life window into the anxieties, split-second decisions, and peril of covert espionage in hostile territory.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Anticipation and Peril (00:45–02:16)

• Gordievsky’s Escape
  Gordon introduces Raymond Asquith, highlighting the extraordinary risk and stakes involved:

  “The story of Gordievsky escaping from Moscow and then getting over the border into Finland is a wild tale… It’s absolutely fascinating insight into what it’s really like to be at the heart of an exfiltration.” – Gordon (00:45)

• Immediate Tension
  Asquith recounts the crucial moments before making contact with Gordievsky. The MI6 team was running late, adding unexpected layers of danger and improvisation:

  "We were, I think, 10 minutes late to the time we were due to meet him at the rendezvous and he had got into rather a panic and he started to walk down the main road towards us and then he realized that was a silly thing to do..." – Raymond Asquith (02:16)

• Brush with the KGB
  The operation’s razor-edge nature is revealed when Asquith details nearly being spotted by KGB agents:

  "As we approached... we could see the KGB cars accelerating at great speed around the corner ahead of us. If they'd looked in their rear view mirrors at that exact point, they would have seen us, but fortunately they didn't." – Raymond Asquith (02:49)

2. The Exfiltration: A Race Against Time (03:46–04:55)

• Operation Execution
  Gordon asks about the physical extraction and how swift and stressful those moments were:

  "He goes into the car boot, I mean, very quickly. I guess that all takes a matter of, what, a minute or so for that to happen so that you can get off again." – Gordon (03:46)

  Asquith elaborates on the compressed timeline, the makeshift changes to the plan, and the distinctly British touch:

  "The original instructions were that my wife would get out of the car with a tray of sandwiches... that would be an indication to Gordievsky that he could come to the car. All that went completely by the board. We just stopped and he came out of the bushes straight away like a sort of troll coming. He was covered in moss and ferns and mosquitoes and things." – Raymond Asquith (04:19)

• Improvised Signals and Tactics Asquith underscores the total lack of communication and pure reliance on signals and trust under pressure:

  "We didn't say anything. I just pointed to the boot, the trunk of my colleague's car, and he knew he had to get in." – Raymond Asquith (04:29)

3. The High-Stakes Escape and Surveillance (04:55–05:33)

• Pressure of Soviet Surveillance
  Asquith highlights the ever-present Soviet scrutiny and the critical importance of timing:

  "Used to report between them... and if we were more than whatever it was, 10 minutes or 15 minutes behind schedule, they would come looking for you in the countryside." – Raymond Asquith (05:05)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Raymond Asquith describing Gordievsky’s emergence:

• “He came out of the bushes straight away like a sort of troll… he was covered in moss and ferns and mosquitoes and things.” (04:21)

On nearly aborting the whole operation:

• “There was a point when I thought we would have to abort the operation, and then there would have been nothing for Gordievsky to do except return home, or somehow he wouldn't be able to find a way across the frontier…” (03:21)

On the tension of KGB presence:

• “If they'd looked in their rear view mirrors at that exact point, they would have seen us, but fortunately they didn't.” (02:53)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:45 — Gordon sets up the episode and introduces Raymond Asquith
• 02:16 — Asquith describes the fraught encounter at the rendezvous point
• 02:49 — The KGB moment and perilous timing
• 04:03 — The breakneck timing and adaptation of the original plan
• 04:29 — The wordless signal: the trunk opens
• 05:05 — Soviet traffic surveillance and the imperative of timing

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Summary Tone & Takeaways

The episode is gripping, tense, and occasionally darkly humorous—very much in the language and style of real-life intelligence veterans. Guests and hosts alike convey a sense of raw peril, improvisation, and the constant presence of fate and chance in covert action. For listeners, it underscores how spy fiction is often surpassed by the drama of true events, revealing the human improvisation behind “textbook” operations.

This episode provides a rare, first-person window into the nerve-wracking realities of Cold War espionage, making real the desperate stakes, clever tradecraft, and luck necessary to pull off one of intelligence history’s great escapes.

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Transcript

[David]

For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad free listening, early access to series first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter and discounted books. Join the Declassified club@the restisclassified.com hello, rest is classified listeners. David and Gordon here. If you've been enjoying our latest series on on the absolutely fascinating life of Oleg Gordievsky, 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.

[Gordon]

That's right. 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 ran that operation on the ground, Raymond Asquith, who was the MI6 head of station in Moscow, who was driving the car as it picked up Gordievsky. And it's a kind of remarkable interview to just get an insight into what it's like to be on the ground under that kind of intense pressure. It's absolutely fascinating insight into what it's really like to be at the heart of an exfiltration.

[David]

Well, that's right. And speaking of people who ran stations in Moscow, Gordon, for members who signed [e-mail], but could it make the live cocktail masterclass that we ran last night where we cooked up some espionage themed drinks with two former CIA officers, one of whom ran the CIA's Moscow station at the height of the Cold War? If you didn't make that, you can access the recording by clicking the link in your Declassified club email or signing up to the Declassified club@the restisclassified.com never.

[Gordon]

Too late to make some cocktails.

[David]

Or too early like mine yesterday.

[Gordon]

Or too early. It's cocktail time somewhere. But first, here's the extract from that interview about Oleg Gordievsky. When exactly did you first set eyes on Oleg Gordievsky?

[Raymond Asquith]

We were, I think, 10 minutes late to the time we were due to meet him at the rendezvous and he had got into rather a panic and he started to walk down the main road towards us and then he realized that was a silly thing to do and so he had only just got back into the bushes in the lay by, which was a rough track road off the main road from Leningrad, as it then was, to Wiborg, which was on the frontier with Finland. And he'd only just got back to hide himself in the bushes. And we arrived at a high speed off the main road and he came out of the bushes straight away. I Must say, smelling pretty, pretty high, you know. And sure enough, as we approached the rendezvous, the exact rendezvous spot where Kordievsky was supposed to be, we could see the KGB cars accelerating at great speed around the corner ahead of us. If they'd looked in their rear view mirrors at that exact point, they would have seen us, but fortunately they didn't. There was a point when I thought we would have to abort the operation, and then there would have been nothing for Gordievsky to do except return home, or somehow he wouldn't be able to find a way across the frontier because that frontier was anxiously defended by the public unions. And they had a lot of guard posts all the way along the frontier.

[Gordon]

And then you meet him at the rendezvous point. He goes into the car boot, I mean, very quickly. I guess that all takes a matter of, what, a minute or so for that to happen so that you can get off again. I mean, there wasn't, I guess, much time to think or to talk to him at that point.

[Raymond Asquith]

No, there wasn't any time. I mean, I timed it and it was less than 2 minutes. The original instructions were that my wife would get out of the car with a tray of sandwiches. I mean, he was very English, the whole thing, and that would be an indication to Gordievsky that he could come to the car. All that went completely by the board. We just stopped and he came out of the bushes straight away like a sort of troll coming. He was covered in moss and ferns and mosquitoes and things. So we didn't say anything. I just pointed to the. The boot, the trunk of my colleague's car, and he knew he had to get in. And we had brought with us quite a lot of sophisticated equipment. But to answer your question, we were literally out within, within two minutes from RV Point and not far off, because, as you probably know, in those days they still are. I think in those days they had traffic police surveillance points all along their main roads, and they used to report between them, the traffic police, the guy, the State Automobile Inspectorate, it was called, they used to phone ahead and say, a foreigner is coming along or a diplomat is coming along. And they would time you between the traffic. And if we were more than whatever it was, 10 minutes or 15 minutes behind schedule, they would come looking for you in the countryside.

[Gordon]

Hope you enjoyed that. If you like what you heard, you can listen to the full interview with Raymond Asquith by signing up to the [e-mail].