Politics
Oleg Gordievsky, Britain’s most valuable Cold War spy inside the KGB, dies at 86 – National TenX News
Oleg Gordievsky, a Soviet KGB officer who helped change the course of the Cold War by covertly passing secrets to Britain, has died. He was 86.
Gordievsky died March 4 in England, where he had lived since defecting in 1985. Police said Saturday that they are not treating his death as suspicious.
Historians consider Gordievsky one of the era’s most important spies. In the 1980s, his intelligence helped avoid a dangerous escalation of nuclear tensions between the USSR and the West.
Born in Moscow in 1938, Gordievsky joined the KGB in the early 1960s, serving in Moscow, Copenhagen and London, where he became KGB station chief.
He was one of several Soviet agents who grew disillusioned with the USSR after Moscow’s tanks crushed the Prague Spring freedom movement in 1968, and was recruited by Britain’s MI6 in the early 1970s.
The 1990 book KGB: The Inside Story, co-authored by Gordievsky and British intelligence historian Christopher Andrew, says Gordievsky came to believe that “the Communist one-party state leads inexorably to intolerance, inhumanity and the destruction of liberties.”
He decided that the best way to fight for democracy “was to work for the West.”
He worked for British intelligence for more than a decade during the chilliest years of the Cold War.
In 1983, Gordievsky warned the U.K. and U.S. that the Soviet leadership was so worried about a nuclear attack by the West that it was considering a first strike.
As tensions spiked during a NATO military exercise in Germany, Gordievsky helped reassure Moscow that it was not precursor to a nuclear attack.
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Soon after, U.S. President Ronald Reagan began moves to ease nuclear tensions with the Soviet Union.
In 1984, Gordievsky briefed soon-to-be Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ahead of his first visit to the U.K. — and also briefed the British on how to approach the reformist Gorbachev. Gorbachev’s meeting with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a huge success.
Ben Macintyre, author of a book about the double agent, “The Spy and the Traitor,” told the BBC that Gordievsky managed “in a secret way to launch the beginning of the end of the Cold War.”
Most senior Soviet spy to defect
Gordievsky was called back to Moscow for consultations in 1985, and decided to go despite fearing — correctly — that his role as a double agent had been exposed.
He was drugged and interrogated but not charged, and Britain arranged an undercover operation to spirit him out of the Soviet Union — smuggled across the border to Finland in the trunk of a car.
He was the most senior Soviet spy to defect during the Cold War.
Documents declassified in 2014 showed that Britain considered Gordievsky so valuable that Thatcher sought to cut a deal with Moscow: If Gordievsky’s wife and daughters were allowed to join him in London, Britain would not expel all the KGB agents he had exposed.
Moscow rejected the offer, and Thatcher ordered the expulsion of 25 Russians, despite objections from Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, who fared it could scuttle relations just as Gorbachev was easing the stalemate between Russia and the West.
Moscow responded by expelling 25 Britons, sparking a second round in which each side kicked out six more officials.
But, despite Howe’s fears, diplomatic relations were never severed.
Gordievsky’s family was kept under 24-hour KGB surveillance for six years before being allowed to join him in England in 1991.
He lived the rest of his life under U.K. protection in the quiet town of Godalming, 64 kilometers southwest of London.
Death not being treated as suspicious
In Russia, Gordievsky was sentenced to death for treason.
In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 2007 for “services to the security of the United Kingdom.”
It is the same accolade held by the fictional British spy James Bond.
In 2008, Gordievsky claimed he had been poisoned and spent 34 hours in a coma after taking tainted sleeping pills given to him by a Russian business associate.
The risks he faced were underscored in 2018 when former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned and seriously sickened with a Soviet-made nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury, where he had been living quietly for years.
The Surrey Police force said officers were called to an address in Godalming on March 4, where “an 86-year-old man was found dead at the property.”
It said counterterrorism officers are leading the investigation, but “the death is not currently being treated as suspicious” and “there is nothing to suggest any increased risk to members of the public.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Politics
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday underscored the importance of keeping central banks independent and threw her support behind beleaguered Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who is facing a Trump administration investigation for renovation cost overruns.
Georgieva told Reuters in an interview that there was ample evidence that central bank independence worked in the interest of businesses and households, and that evidence-based, data-based decision-making is good for the economy.
The IMF managing director said she had worked with Powell and respected his professionalism.
“I have worked with Jay Powell. He is a very good professional, very decent man, and I think that his standing among his colleagues tells the story,” she said, when asked about a letter of support signed by her predecessor, Christine Lagarde, now head of the European Central Bank, and other large central banks.
Powell on Sunday disclosed that the Trump administration had opened an investigation into him over cost overruns for a $2.5 billion project to renovate two historical buildings at the Fed’s Washington headquarters complex.
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Powell denies wrongdoing and has called the unprecedented actions a pretext to put pressure on him for not bowing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-running demands for sharply lower interest rates.
The probe has sparked widespread criticism from some key members of Trump’s Republican Party in the U.S. Senate, which must confirm his nominee to succeed Powell, along with foreign economic officials, investors and former U.S. government officials from both political parties.
Trump has repeatedly derided Powell’s leadership of the Fed and attacked him, often personally, over what he sees as the Fed chair’s slow moves to cut interest rates. On Wednesday, he dismissed concerns that eroding central bank independence would undermine the value of the U.S. dollar and spark inflation, telling Reuters, “I don’t care.”
Georgieva said the IMF looked carefully at issues such as monetary and financial stability, as well as the strength of a country’s institutions. It was specifically interested in the Fed, given the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.
“It would be very good to see that there is a recognition … that the Fed is precious for the Americans. It is very important for the rest of the world,” she said.
Trump has also attempted to fire another Fed official, Governor Lisa Cook, who has challenged her termination in a legal case that will be argued before the Supreme Court next week.
B.C. Premier David Eby spoke to reporters on Thursday morning from Mumbai, India, during his six-day trade mission.
He said that mining and energy companies in India are showing an interest in B.C.
“They are looking strongly to LNG as one of their ways of reducing carbon intensity, as well as reducing smog in the country,” Eby said.
“And so B.C. LNG has been an item of considerable interest, especially the projects that are reaching final investment decision over the next year — LNG Canada Phase 2, KSI Lisims LNG — as well as the projects that are under construction like Woodfibre LNG.”
Eby was also asked about the rise in extortion cases in B.C.
He said the province’s extortion task force will provide an update next week.
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“We have assembled a remarkable and historic task force, RCMP, CBSA,” Eby said.
“There are more police in Surrey right now than there have ever been. The RCMP has surged resources into the community.”
Eby said he has not been happy with the fact that there has been no update from the task force and he has asked them to provide one.
“There have been some important developments, people deported, an arrest here in India, cooperation between the Indian government and the Canadian government on this at the law enforcement level,” he added.
“That needs to continue, but, bluntly, we need better results, we need to see more arrests and whatever we can do to support the police to get the job done, we will do so.”
As of Jan. 12, Surrey police said there have been 16 reported extortion incidents in the city since the beginning of the year.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Amid persistent doubts over the future of the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA), Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard insisted on Thursday that the agreement remains firmly intact and that the three countries will close a deal to extend it.
“We’re already in the treaty review phase, and we have to finish by July 1; that’s our deadline,” Ebrard said during Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily morning press conference.
“We have made good progress on all the points that concern each of the parties.”
Ebrard’s comments were his first on the topic since U.S. President Donald Trump again cast doubt on the treaty’s future earlier this week.
“There’s no real advantage to it, it’s irrelevant,” Trump said on Tuesday, as he toured a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan.
The trilateral trade agreement, known as USMCA, replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020 and is a backbone of Mexico’s economy.
The treaty, which was negotiated during Trump’s first term, requires the three countries to hold a joint review this year to extend the pact.
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If extended, the treaty will remain in place another 16 years. If not, it is subject to annual reviews.
Technically, July 1 is a key date in the treaty’s review process, but many analysts expect negotiations to extend late into 2026 and said Trump will likely avoid extending the treaty before the U.S. midterm elections in November.
Trump’s recent threats to pursue military action against cartels have also added a new layer of uncertainty to U.S.-Mexico relations.
“I think Ebrard is betting on a best-case scenario, but the window for a July successful review is closing fast,” said Alexia Bautista, a former Mexican diplomat and lead Mexico analyst at the political risk consultancy firm Horizon Engage.
“Given recent events and statements, the risk is that Trump injects security into the process, turning the trade review into a far more political negotiation.”
Pedro Casas, chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, said he expects the U.S. will continue imposing tariffs on a wide spectrum of Mexican exports, regardless of the treaty’s future.
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping 50 per cent duties on steel and aluminum exports to the U.S., along with a 25 per cent tariff on cars shipped from Mexico, even when those vehicles comply with the terms of the trade deal.
“I think the most likely scenario is a positive review process where we agree to extend the treaty for another 16 years, but steep tariffs still remain on Mexican exports that undermine the strength of the agreement,” Casas said.
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
B.C. Premier David Eby says province’s LNG, mining of interest to India TenX News
Mexico confident CUSMA will remain as Trump suggests it could expire – National TenX News
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