The Big Breach - Index of

The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comfind something else to do. Such were the early days in SOV/OPS. Thenovelty was interesting but the slow routine was anticlimactic afterthe hurly-burly of the IONEC. Every few days I would debrief an agent -mostly British businessmen with interests in Russia - then spend thenext day writing up the ensuing paperwork. So far, I had produced onlythe one rather obscure CX report. My contribution did not feel as if itwas vital to the execution of British foreign policy - unless we weretrying to do some paper-exporting nation a favour.I joined the East European controllerate in changing times in both thecontrollerate and the geographical area that we covered. The Berlinwall had recently fallen and news bulletins were filled every day withthe political break-up of the Soviet Union and the realignment of theformer Sovbloc countries with the West. Changes swept through the oldSoviet administrative machine and even the KGB had not escaped. Underthe leadership of Yevgenniy Primakov the old directorates werereorganised into two new organisations. The SVR was responsible forgathering oveseas intelligence, roughly equivalent to MI6. The FSB wasresponsible for counter-intelligence, the approximate analogue of theBritish MI5.In Century House this news was received with satisfaction at havingdefeated the old enemy, tempered with caution. MI6 had to reorganiseits strategy in response and one of the first changes was to enter intoliaison relationships with the SVR and FSB, something that would havebeen unthinkable only a few years earlier. Both sides recognised thatdialogue would be mutually beneficial, so H/MOS, John Redd, was`declared' to the SVR and a programme of regular liaison meetingsstarted. There were still more requirements for intelligence on Russiathan on any other country, but their scope changed. The greaterpolitical openness brought by `Glasnost' meant that information whichwould once have been regarded as intelligence was now openly available.It was now fairly easy to find out from public sources what aparticular factory in, say, the Ural mountains manufactured. What MI6remained interested in was at a higher level; in intelligence parlance,the CX `threshold' was higher.As a probationer in the service, I would not be indoctrinated into themost sensitive Russian casework, known as `YZ' cases, which were thesource of most of this high-grade intelligence. I had to start at thebottom, with the consolation that even the most productive casessometimes had the most humble and unlikely beginnings.It was with this in mind that Stuart Russel, who had just replacedFowlecrooke, developed my first serious task. Russel had served inLisbon, Stockholm and most recently Moscow, and was now at the crucialstage of his career where he had to mark himself out to be a high-flyer(otherwise his career could peter out in a series of unimportant HeadOffice jobs or postings to sleepy stations in Africa and the Far Eastuntil compulsory retirement at 55). He had his eye on heading theVienna station. It was one of the biggest and most important MI6stations and would be an opportunity to prove his potential as a highflyer.But first, he had to sort out SOV/OPS after the departure of theineffective Fowlecrooke.Russel called me into his office. He had enlivened the grim civilservice decor with oil paintings and souvenirs acquired on his overseaspage- 67 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com