Rotten Mango - #182: The People Who Spy On Us (KGB & MI6 Spy Kidnapping)

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

In the comfort of her own private living room, Rachel complained about her bad back to her husband. They needed to drive across the border to see a specialist. In Caroline’s place, Caroline argued with her husband about going on a double-date road trip for Rachel’s bad back. Her husband argued it was going to be boring, but he caved eventually. So it was settled the two couples would be road-tripping to Finland. Sounds like a mundane conversation? Boring almost? Then why were agents carefully transcribing every single word that they heard inside Rachel and Caroline’s house? Why were they listening through their electronic devices? Rachel and Caroline were seemingly normal people… why did government agents care to spy on them? And are they listening to you right now? Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or pay to description starting at $12.99 per month. Bettering Betterboot

Welcome to this week's main episode of Rotten Mango, I'm your host Stephanie Sue. And Rachel, our girl Rachel had a bad back. Everybody knew it, she always had back problems. But nobody knew how bad it was getting. One morning she wakes up and she starts complaining. How horrible she slept, how her back feels, oh the pain, the aches, she can't even move. Every time she walks it's like someone is stabbing into her back. And throughout the day, the pain is only getting worse. She's getting frustrated like husband, what are you doing? Why are you not assisting me?

You're being completely useless. Help me rub it. Do something. Rachel's mother-in-law starts to get panicked. Like, are you okay, sweetie? Do you need to see someone? I don't know. So Rachel's husband rushes over to call some friends

from Finland to her doctors. He asks for their advice and they think, you know, Rachel honey, you probably should see a specialist if it hurts that bad. Well, it hurts that bad, so what do we do? We don't have a specialist in the area. Okay, her husband is like, don't freak out. Let me check some flight prices. Oh God, I don't know what's been going on. These prices have been going up. I don't think we can afford to fly out there, honey. Now, Rachel's friend Caroline happened to be there. And she came to save the day.

Well, why don't we drive? My husband and I can come, we can drive most of the time and we'll make a little double date trip out of it. It'll be fun. Rachel's nodding in pain. Caroline goes home to talk to her husband Roy and he's upset. Like are you serious? This is going to be so boring.

Do we have to? I mean, they're like the most boring couple ever. I'm only friends with them because you're friends with them. Caroline managed to persuade her husband. They get a sitter for their older kids. They take their baby with them. And that night, in the dark, all four of them lay in bed. And they're smiling.

In the cover of darkness, they're hoping that they complained loud enough, that they put on a show loud enough, that the intelligence officers listening through their electronic devices heard every word. And they did. A few agents were really busy. They had put listening devices in the couple's homes. They were scribbling down notes, writing reports. Today, Rachel has a bad back. She's thinking about going to Helsinki.

Caroline might be going with her, making a little weekend trip out of it. Has been was not into it, but Caroline managed to convince him. The agents were listening to every word of the two seemingly ordinary couples' home lives. Why? Do they do this to everyone? Do they just like these random couples? Are you being listened to right now?

As always, full show notes are available at RottenMangoPotcast.com, but as always, get this book. Like, when I say get this book, get this book. It is so good. It's called The Spy in the Trader by Ben McIntyre. There's also a really good documentary in the source notes, but while this book was based on interviews with Olegg himself, it gives you a really good insight into Olegg's personal conflicts, his thought process as he literally

betrayed an entire nation. Oh, and also this is one of those stories where it literally changed the fate of the future. Our lives were impacted by this one person. Oleg? Yeah, Oleg. Oleg. And we don't really even know much about it. So with that being said, let's get started.

You know that feeling when you're walking out of a retail store with those giant beaper machines on the sides, you're passing those security detectors and you're thinking, okay, please don't be, please don't be. And no, I'm not a ClipDomaniac. I'm not going around stealing things from stores. I literally have not stolen anything. If anything, I've purchased a lot of things. But I still get so panicked. It's like when a cop drives next to you. Suddenly you feel like everything that you're doing is illegal. You don't even know how to drive anymore.

The paranoia just comes out of left field. Well, that's how Olek Gordievsky felt getting off of his flight in Moscow. He had just flown in from London, and as he's walking through the airport, the Moscow airport, he felt this... It's like unnerving sense. I don't know, maybe it was the hairs on the back of his neck they were standing up. Maybe it's that he could feel his pulse and parts of his body that usually felt still. Maybe he felt uncomfortable even walking because he felt like somebody was watching him. Every step, every glance, everything just felt off.

But Oleg tried to put it in the back of his mind. You know, this guy is paranoid by nature. He just felt like he could smell danger. And trust him, danger does not smell like roses. It's a nasty smell. The passport officer seemed to study his papers for a little bit longer than usual. Was there something in the system that Oleg didn't know? What could it be?

There seemed to be an unusually large number of guards trying their best to act casual. Or is he thinking that? Is he imagining it? Or there always this many guards? As Oleg stepped into the fresh air and into his cab, he tried to rationalize his anxiety. There's nothing wrong, he's imagining it all, it's fine. If the police knew what he had done, he would have been arrested already, maybe even executed. But he's still alive, that must mean something. Oleg didn't know that soon a close friend of his would invite him out to lunch, where two government officials would inject him with truth serum against his will and interrogate him for hours on end.

And if he's so much as answered one question wrong, he would be executed. But not before, not before being tortured in the worst imaginable ways. Have you guys read the book 1984? No. Okay. So for many, it was required reading in high school, if not, maybe you've seen the movie, and if you haven't even seen the movie, I'm sure you're somewhat familiar with the premise. 1984 is like the ultimate, oh shit, let's never let this happen type of plot.

It's our warning of the future. It's a dystopian social science fiction novel about a world where you're every action and even every single thought that you think is monitored by the government is heavily monitored by the thought police and by big brother. The concept is terrifying and it's even more unsettling when you realize how close to reality this actually is. Aren't all of our actions being watched right now? All of our thoughts think about it. Don't we tweet our thoughts? Don't we post about our thoughts? And aren't we all thought policing each other?

The government doesn't need to do it. We do it to each other. Deep. It's fascinating to think about. Listen, I think to some degree, we all believe, and we know that we're being monitored. Let's be real. Those FBI memes, like the agent listening in on your phone calls, where you're talking about the sexy rendezvous you just had, I mean, there's gotta be some truth to it. Some are a little bit more relaxed with the idea that like whatever, FBI can search my history. My life is boring anyway. I have nothing to hide.

Others are like, well, I take great offense to this. Why are they looking at my search history? Personally, I don't think that there's an FBI agent assigned to watch my neighborhood or anything like that. Just sitting there in HQ with his coffee and cream cheese bagel, writing down all of my suspicious searches that usually correlate to a case I'm researching. Why did this girl just look up how many cups of blood are in a human body? Why did she just Google, how much blood does a human body

need to lose before death, taking notes of my search histories to use against me one day, and a little blop of cream cheese falls onto a shirt? I don't think that's happening, but I do think that all of our searches are getting logged somewhere. For a rainy day, let's say someone does die in my vicinity.

These searches will probably come up. But if it is the case where they are watching a low F.E.I. agent, I like my bagels with a barely visible layer of cream cheese just in case you're gonna bribe me during an interrogation. Listen, I don't think it's like that, but I do think that we are being surveillance. I mean, that's how social media presents us with targeted ads. I think we're probably being watched more than I personally think we are and also side note You know how people are so panicked at the idea that the government is going to secretly chip us all

Do we not chip our own selves With our phones that we carry around everywhere and do we not post our most intimate thoughts on there the minute that they come to the forefront of our brains So we are being watched, and it's scary, but it's not nearly as bad as 1984. In 1984, every single action is scrutinized by the government. You can't even use the bathroom without being monitored. They just want to make sure that while you're taking a pee break that you're not harboring any radical ideas, any ideologies that might oppose the government, they want every single citizen to be the perfect

government follower, the perfect conformer. If you make so much as one mistake, maybe you critique a tiny little thing that the government does, such as the DMV could be a bit faster, don't you think? You're going to jail. Literally, you're going to jail, they're going to torture you until they break your mind, and you come back a perfectly obedient, empty-minded puppet, a shell of a human, but that's okay. Because now, you're the perfect citizen.

Honestly, 1984 kind of exists in this world. In places like North Korea, if you haven't already listened to our episode Kinnapt by North Korea, episode 95, go give it a listen, it's the craziness that takes place in North Korea. But another country that has been really bad was the USSR. And instead of Big Brother, the USSR, the Soviet Union, had the KGB.

The CIA equivalent for the Soviets. And wow, yeah, the KGB is one of the most, if not the most complex and far-reaching intelligence agencies ever created in the history of existing governments, prior governments, just history. It combined the roles of foreign and domestic intelligence gathering, internal security enforcement, state police, the KGB was well organized, well-funded, and they literally controlled every single aspect of Soviet life. It monitored the citizens, the international opposition to communism.

They used espionage and counterintelligence operations against enemy powers. Okay, so you know how in America, if you guys live in America, we all know the CIA exists, and we're like, oh, they're kind of cool, you know, because we have great marketing and book in books, movies and shows where like the CIA seems so fancy. But we never like deal with them on a daily basis. Even though they probably know a lot more about all of us than we think, they're just not an agency that we think of frequently. But if you lived in the USSR, you bet your family's life, you would be thinking about the KGB often if not every single fucking day because your neighbor was probably a KGB informant and if you ever showed even an inkling of like, I wonder what America is like. Your dead executed, shot in the back of the head.

Yeah, it was that bad. So the KGB shaped Soviet society more profoundly than any institution. And those who joined the ranks of the KGB, they were KGB for life. There's no leaving. Vladimir Putin himself was a former KGB officer, and he said, and I quote, there is no such thing as a former KGB man. So that's great. And really reassuring with everything going on and everyone in the KGB took their jobs Seriously and they had to because you know their life kind of depended on it There was this elite training academy deep in the woods 50 miles from Moscow and it was codenamed school 101 And I don't know if this is completely an unintentional. I'm assuming it is

But in 1984 the basement torture chamber where the party breaks up prisoners' resistance by subjecting him to his worst nightmare, literally whatever your worst nightmare is, they're gonna do that to you, is called Room 101. So coincidence? Yes, unsettling? Absolutely. If the Soviets had a Room 101, Oleg felt like he was headed straight there. His anxiety filled Cad ride from the Moscow airport back to his apartment, I felt like he was headed straight there. His anxiety filled Cad ride from the Moscow airport back to his apartment, I mean it was just a lot. He had unsuccessfully tried to convince himself that he was overthinking everything. Nobody's watching.

There's no extra guards at the airport. That's just always how he's been. Why would they be watching him? But when he went to go unlock his apartment, he put his key in the first bolt. And unlocked smoothly. The second bolt, it unlocked smoothly. And when he went to push the door, it didn't budge. The third bolt on the door was fast and shut. Oleg never used the third lock. He didn't even have a key for it. So does that mean it's locked from the inside. Yes, but that meant somebody had been inside of his apartment and had tripled locked the door, thinking Oleg would have done the same.

And Oleg was sure he knew who it was. It was the KGB. Because one of the first things Oleg learned as a spy was once a KGB, always a KGB. And Oleg was kind of destined for it. It's almost like his story was written since the day that he came out of the womb. Oleg was literally born into a KGB family. His father Anton was a respected KGB member,

and his passion in life was communism. Imagine being like, hey, what's your hobby? Communism. Well, that was Anton. He like didn't even, he had no hobby. He didn't like to go bike riding, hiking, walks on the beach, nothing. Communism. Anton was so intense and so dedicated that he wore his KGB uniform 24-7 even on the weekends.

He lived, breathed, communism. Anton was part of the KGB that they enforced the Sovietization of Kazakhstan, which how did they do that you're wondering? They basically stole all the food from struggling Kazakhstan and used the food to feed the Russians and around 1.5 million people perished in the famine. They literally starved Kazakhstan to death to take control. And Anton didn't flip. She felt like it was part of the communist way. It's the right thing to do.

They'll think them later. And then the great purge happened, where literally, NKVD, which is the precursor of the KGB, they sought to literally purge all the enemies of the state. Anyone in the USSR that didn't believe wholeheartedly in communism, they had to frickin die. They were gonna die. It was a bloody, bloody terrifying time to be alive. Informers and regular citizens were giving up neighbors' names because the safest way to ensure survival

was to denounce someone else. So practically, everybody is denouncing people left and right. So yeah, you're gonna end up with a lot of innocent people dead. And what is the head of the NKVD at the time say about this? He said, better that 10 innocent people should suffer than one spy get away. When you chop wood, chips fly. Basically saying there's gonna be collateral and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm sorry, what?

And then they use this fear to remind citizens of their duty. Sometimes the NKVD would cremate traders alive while filming the death to scare potential traders, or they would just go the old fashioned way. Torture someone at length and then take them into an empty room, you know akin to those scary warehouse rooms and movies, make them kneel and shoot them in the back of the head. Anton saw a lot of this while he was in the KGB. Oleg said that he watched his dad become more and more paranoid as time went on. He was always looking over his shoulder.

He had these nightmares. He would often get too quiet when certain topics came up. Even if it was the smallest, most non-consequential conversation, M-ton couldn't risk being misunderstood as a traitor because he'd seen what they do to traitors. So even when they're in the KGB,

they're still terrified. Because they're terrified that someone's gonna out you as a mole even if you're not a mole. You're working for the KGB. They're still terrified. Because they're terrified that someone's going to out you as a mole, even if you're not a mole. You're working for the other side. Wow. You're trying to take down the KGB, aren't you, Anton? Maybe Anton realized how bad this was, how horrible the KGB was in their ruthlessness. But with those dark circles under his eyes, no soul behind his irises, Anton would still

say the KGB is always right. That was his life motto, and he would adhere to it. Now what's interesting is that Anton, his wife Olga and Olegg's mother, sure she accepted the communist regime, but mainly because she didn't want to die. That was the whole reason. She didn't really believe in it like her husband did. She would even make a few snide comments here and there about communism, which honestly if she did that in front of the wrong people, it could have literally caused her her life. But she was smart about it. She never got caught. So from the outside

and to the KGB, the family looked like the perfect little communist family. The perfect little followers. Oleg had an interesting upbringing with such different parents. Maybe his life would have turned out differently if both of his parents were blindly devoted to communism. One of Oleg's earliest memories, though, was watching a line of German prisoners being paraded around the streets of Moscow. And he said that they looked trapped and guarded, and it's like they were being let around like animals. He didn't know how to feel about it.

But that's a problem. You're not supposed to feel anything. The only thing you're supposed to feel is loyalty to the Communist Party. So Oleg tries to forget about these mixed emotions that he's having because, like I said, he's not allowed to have mixed emotions. And he focuses on studying.

He loved reading. He loved learning languages. He was fluent in Russian and German. And he wanted to learn English, but ironically, the English classes were always too full to accept more students, which is ironic because like, fuck the Western world. Liking the Western world was like the biggest sin

of the USSR. Oleg said when he was 17 years old, he went to the most prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations, which is like the Russian Harvard, is how they describe it. It's a very elite university. It's catered to soon-to-be diplomat, scientists, economists, politicians, and spies. They taught over 56 languages more than any other university in the entire world.

Olex thinking, well, because it's a leading school, let me just voice my thoughts. You know, it's kind of a place where we should all be progressively thinking and bouncing ideas back and forth. We are the leading minds of the next generation, right? Well, he starts openly talking about socialism with his classmates. He even wrote a paper about freedom and democracy. When one of his classmates and a friend heard the the speech he told him, go destroy this at once, Oleg. And never mention these things ever again. Hurry, go now. Oleg was so confused.

And he started to feel anxious all of a sudden and scared. He's like, I didn't even do anything wrong. Did I do anything wrong? I don't even know if I did anything wrong. He couldn't even sleep at night. With his piss off the KGB, he knew that they had spies in the institute. Did they already know? Maybe the classmates snitched. Oleg knew from now on that everything that he thought had to be a secret, because it's the one thing that the KGB couldn't monitor, where his thoughts.

And Oleg had a lot of thoughts about the Western world, which is like I said already a sin in communism. He wondered what life was like in the Western world, how it differed from Russia. He would think about all of this while he ran through a mask out for hours. Listen, this guy loved long distance running. He said it was character building.

And when Oleks brother got the call, he was being recruited into the KGB. So Vasily is his brother, and he was going to work for the Foreign Intelligence Unit, which managed quote, illegals. Okay, here's the breakGB. So Vasiliy is his brother and he was going to work for the foreign intelligence unit, which managed quote, illegals. Okay, here's the breakdown. In the KGB, there's two types of spies. There's the legal spies that are legally considered diplomats. So they have diplomatic protection and they would not be prosecuted for espionage if their activities were uncovered, but they would be expelled from whatever country they were in. Really?

Yes. So it's like a Russian diplomat is in the US and they're doing some spy in America. It's like, we can't really put you in jail, but like, skidad a lot of here, bro. What? Unless it's really bad, I'm sure they could put him in jail. I'm sure that there's loopholes around this. But then the other flip side are the illegal spies. So technically, the USSR is not protecting them. They have no official status.

They're not diplomats, they're not ambassadors. They're not... There's no political reason for them to be in the country that they're visiting. They're just trying to pretend to be residents there. They're trying to get like a work visa there. They usually travel under fake names with fake papers and fake identities. They simply blend invisibly into whatever country that they're posted to. And obviously, this is more valuable. Because imagine you meet a diplomat and they're trying to ask you state secrets, you're probably not going to fess up.

But let's say you just meet a cool guy who works at the local coffee shop and you just click, like, maybe you will spill some secrets. So Vasilie turned out to be really good at its drop as an illegal spy. The KGB wanted to see, well, you've got a little brother, don't you, Oleg? Let's see if he's also good. The KGB interview Oleg and they even complimented him on his German. He was fluent. And they said, Oleg, would you like to join the program where we test to see if you can be part of the KGB? I mean, you can't really say no. So, yeah, Oleg went on his first assignment. It was really a test.

Oleg was going to be sent to Berlin for six months as a translator for the Russian Embassy. Vasiliev was already there as an illegal spy, and Oleg was going to go and carry out a few small, meaningless tasks. Now, for context, Germany at the time was intense. There was tension between the east and west Berlin, controlled by the two opposing sides of the Cold War, so by the time that Oleg arrived in East Berlin, about 20% of the population of East Berlin had already fled to West Berlin to escape communism. And Moscow told the East German government, you better stop this shit.

So that's why they started constructing the Berlin Wall. Now the communists claimed that it was to keep the enemy out. But in reality, nobody's trying to get in. It was to keep its own citizens in prison, essentially. And Oleg saw the horrors. I mean, he watched as the streets near the borders. They were torn up by bulldozers, so that nobody could drive across. Troops unrolled miles of barbed wire on the ground, so nobody could drive across. Troops unrolled miles of barbed wire on the grounds so nobody could run across.

Some East Germans, I mean realizing their bid for freedom was closing, they attempted to swim across the canals, but guards were lined up with orders to shoot anyone that attempted to flee. Oleg was horrified, but he knew he couldn't show it because he was being watched. This was all a test. He had missions to complete. That was the most important. Which side note, this is interesting, but Oleks Mission was to find this little old lady and get her to open up and provide information. Any information? Well, it turns out the whole thing is a test. The little old lady is KGB. They just want to make sure that the trainees can find her in the city. They don't, they just give a name. Like, how are you going to go find them? You need to build police contacts to get this name.

And she just sits bored out of her mind, repeating random shit. And these trainees are writing down the notes. Like, oh, my god, this is important. These are state secrets. But it's literally a fake mission. And Oleg passed. And so with that, Oleg was called back to Moscow.

And he said that being in Germany left such a huge impact on him. He got his first taste of espionage, which is like spy activities. And he was heavily questioning the communist ideology now, but he didn't quit the KGB, because there were some deep perks. Listen, the work is glamorous compared

to other jobs in Moscow. You could potentially travel the world, which is really difficult to do as a regular civilian. You're a sexy, secret agent. I mean, is he going to have sex with another secret spy from the UK, like in a hotel lobby? It sounds like it, right? That's what he was thinking. That's he genuinely was like, my sex life is going to be wild.

There's going to be so many hot spies out there. I'm going to be James Bond, are you kidding? How cool. Oleg also secretly hoped that by the time KGB would change and communism would change into something that he supported. Right now it was too extreme. So Oleg, he gets sent to Moscow to school 101, the elite training academy,

and he wouldn't disclose what he learned there because it's top secret. But he did say that he learned a lot about surveillance detection and evasion. They call it dry cleaning. Can you guess what that means? Dry cleaning, no washer, no printer, all facts. No cap.

I don't know, dry cleaning, what does that mean? Dry cleaning. Wow, you would be such a good little spy. It's crazy. So dry cleaning is basically a process where you're able to detect that you're being followed by someone. Someone has qualified as you, if not more, and you're able to dodge their surveillance

in a way that appears accidental. So let's say I'm following you. You know I'm following you. You have to be able to know. I'm really good. You have to be able to catch on and then accidentally lose me because if it seems intentional, then I know that you know I'm following you. Wow, that's hard.

So you have to arrive at a new spot completely dry cleaned, meaning nobody has followed you. Honestly, it sounds like a pretty neat skill to have. Like you can't just be taking three right turns and going in a circle and be like, ah, they're following me because that's what you learn on TikTok, but when you're a spy, it's a skill to have. You can't just be taking three right turns and going in a circle and be like, ah, they're following me because that's what you learn on TikTok. But when you're a spy, it's a little bit harder, because these spies are smart. But it's also incredibly hard to learn. I mean, imagine a facility filled with smart, talented people that want the job as bad as you do, if not more, because, like I said, your life depends on it.

So it's kind of like squid games. And you guys are dry cleaning and practicing. I mean, your whole life purpose is to make sure that you're following someone the whole time, how are you gonna lose them? But Oleg was very good at them. He said it was very exhausting, very time consuming, but he was good.

So the spy kids, the spies in training, they were taught. Had to meet up with someone at a precise location, drop off, pick up information, how to make brush contact, which is a.k.a. passing by someone on a crosswalk or a road, and physically passing a message or item without being spotted by anyone else. So it just looks like two strangers crossing the road. That's cool. Yeah, how to make a dead letter drop, which means leaving a message or a cash at a particular spot to be picked up without being seen by civilians or somebody following you or making it obvious. Because imagine I'm just scrolling down the park and is that a bag of cash under the

bench? Like I'm going to take the bag of cash under the bench. I'm so sorry KGB. I guess you can kill me later, but in that moment I won't know. I'll take it. So Oleg learned codes, ciphers, recognition skills, secret writing, micro dots, photography, disguise, and of course heavy communist indoctrination

to reinforce the commitment to the party. The spy kids had daily and hourly affirmations of loyalty to communism, which is another disconcerning parallel between KGB and 1984. Yeah. And like any other spy kid, Oleg would swear eternal loyalty to the KGB. He said, I commit myself to defend my country to the last drop of blood and to keep state

secrets. But I think he was starting to doubt his conviction. So after a year of this intensive training, Oleg was officially a member of the KGB, and there was no going back. Because remember, there is no such thing as a former KGB man. Oleg just wanted a glamorous spy life. It's hard for Soviets to travel out of Russia,

but his brother was constantly going to exotic locations like Vietnam, Sweden, South Africa. He was traveling the world. Vesili was a valuable spy for his innate skill, something that couldn't be taught at school 101. Vesili was a heavy drinker. And coming from Russians, that's very high compliment apparently. Vesili had the ability to consume ungodly, potentially lethal amounts of vodka and not fall over and not even lose focus. So as a spy, he was perfect. He could outdrink his targets,

pretend to be just as drunk if not more, while waiting for the target to get sloppy and let down his guards. Yeah, spy shit. Wow. Meanwhile, Oleg would not be stationed overseas. He was on paperwork duty for other spies. Yeah, all that training to do paperwork at KGBHQ, which by the way was really scary looking. It was called Lubyanka. It's this huge complex that's part prison, part archive, part HQ, and the center of the complex housed the KGB torture cells. The KGB called it the center or the monastery. Side note, the word Lubyanka sounds very similar to the word love in Russian, and in 1984 they have the Ministry of Love, which very similar to the word love in Russian, and in 1984 they have the Ministry of Love, which is used to torture people.

So listen, the parallels are endless and it's very creepy. Maybe it's all a coincidence. But side note, the whole thing is bizarre when you think about all these agencies, even the CIA. I'm sure all their headquarters are super sterile and they kind of look like well lit office spaces. Meanwhile, inside, they're organizing international crime. They're analyzing intelligence, organizing political warfare, propaganda,

media manipulation, disinformation, intimidation, kidnapping, and sometimes murder, or should I say, fancily, assassination. But like, Janet, what are you getting for lunch? I heard they just opened up a new burrito stand down. It's weird, just think about it, it's weird. What a life. But anyway, that's where Oleg would be spending his days on a desk doing paperwork. He was not going to be sipping martinis at an exotic beach flirting with a hot foreign spy from America to get information.

He was going to be shuffling paper and filling out forms. But Oleg did not let his disappointment show. America to get information. He was going to be shuffling paper and filling out forms. But Oleg did not let his disappointment show. He knew he was too new to be sent overseas, and more importantly, he wasn't married. Yeah, another interesting parallel from 1984 was that the KGB was obsessed with the employees' personal lives. KGB officers were expected to get married, have children, indoctrinate the children into the party, and never get divorced. Why? Is it because studies show that men are happier in marriages and they live longer and are

generally healthier while women suffer in marriages and they report loss of, loss of well-happiness and life? No, that's not why. It's because spies who are sent overseas on longer missions usually relocate with the entire family. And if your family is with you in Italy, you're less likely to abort your Italian mission, go on the run, and escape to the UK. Also, you're not just risking your life when you go against the KGB.

You're risking your entire family's life. So yeah, that's why the KGB wants you to be married. Do you thought of everything? Yeah, it's honestly pretty messed up when you think real deep into it. be married. Who's gonna catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're gonna want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all.

Did you consider yourself a rat? 100%. I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy, man, but I love being a dirty mother f***er. So Oleg starts looking to get married. He wanted to find a woman that spoke German and hopes that the KGB would send them to Germany on a mission.

So he finds a woman named Yelena, which is a beautiful name, by the way. I have a friend named Yelena, okay? a beautiful name, by the way. I have a friend named Yelena, okay. And Oleg met Yelena through a mutual friend. She was studying to be a German teacher and when they first met, Oleg said he was so attracted to the fact that Yelena was so sarcastic. She had this quick wit about her. She was very intelligent. Oleg found it very charming.

For now, later, he would find it annoying because that's what marriage does to people. He's like, Jesus, stop with these one liners, you're so annoying. Also, Oleg love that Yalena was a bit more progressive. For example, she was a feminist, and being a feminist in Russia in 1960, you might as well have been an alien from Mars. So it's okay to be a feminist? Not really, but she was. Oh, yeah. And the two of them, they don't really click that well, but it seemed like they were good enough to be together on paper. They both wanted to travel. They were more progressive compared

to everyone else around them. So Oleg said they got married without much real thought or self-examination on either side. And it paid off, because soon after Oleg got what he was wanting, he was going to Denmark with his wife. Oleg did not hesitate. He said, one does not look twice at an offer of enrollment in an elite force So the couple land in Copenhagen

There's a wife now. Oh, yeah, yeah, she knows and it was the ultimate culture shock Denmark's capital was clean beautiful modern rich everything the two thought International travel would be and more. Listen, Soviet Russia was not the wealthiest country, nor was it the cleanest. Nor did common people live very well. In fact, most people lived in pretty depressing conditions in Soviet Russia, but Copenhagen had sleek cars, shiny office buildings, smart design afferenters, smiling Nordic people with magnificent dentistry.

They're great teeth. Fucking shiny, pearly white teeth beaming out of their happy mouths. Why were they always smiling? It was wonderful, okay? Copenhagen had stores that sold things that Oleg had never even seen in his life. And most of all, sex was uncensored. Oleg was shocked.

He went to the red light district one day and he entered a shop selling a bunch of pornographic material and he loved it. He felt compelled to buy three gay porn magazines and he rushed home to show his wife. Side note, this is important later, but Oleg is not gay. And homosexuality was illegal in Russia. So they had never seen anything so free and out in the open. He said that he bought it because he was so intrigued. He had no idea what gay people even did. And he put the gay sex magazines on his mantel piece. Yeah, on his fire place, as a representation of the freedom that he didn't have at home.

He could do all of this though. He's still in KGB. Yeah, but he's trying to like fit in, you know. They have a lot more freedom overseas. And yeah, there's gonna be a lot of spies from the KGB and Denmark. But they're not gonna hang out in groups. They're not gonna go over to each other's houses, They have a lot more freedom overseas and yeah, there's gonna be a lot of spies from the KGB and Denmark But they're not gonna hang out in groups. They're not gonna go over to each other's houses because that's just raising alarms right and That wasn't the only censorship shock that oh, I got he would even buy whatever book he wanted Wow, that was crazy. No books were censored even at the library. He could rent books for free many at a time I mean, they just trusted you to bring it back

It was like heaven to be able to read all these books that have been banned in Russia for so long. And the music, even composers like Bach were banned in Russia, so it's perfect. The apartment the couple moved into was modern, clean, Oleg even got a Volkswagen Beetle, and a cash allowance every month to entertain contacts with. It was the life.

And Oleg realized, you know, this is why ordinary Soviet citizens that are not in the KGB are not allowed to travel abroad. Because who, but a fully indoctrinated KGB officer, would be able to taste such freedoms and resist the urge to stay. But that was an endgame for Oleg. I'm honestly not really sure what endgame was for him, maybe to make the KGBC differently, I don't know. But if that were the case, he definitely wasn't doing it.

He just wanted to climb the ranks of the KGB. Maybe so he could travel more, go to even better destinations, if there were any. That's what he thought. Olec noticed that a ton of his fellow KGB members, once they got to Denmark, they just kind of floated around. I think they were so happy with the freedom, they wanted to experience that it was like a kid in a candy shop. They didn't really do their jobs. Most of them would make false reports of having interactions with Danish people. Did the KGB not realize that most of the KGB didn't speak Danish? That were stationed in Denmark. So

okay, yeah, you're having full-length conversations in Danish all of a sudden. Per your last email, per your last freaking report. Oleg knew that this was his chance to stand out. I mean, it's not like the competition was coming in hot. Side note, there were some interesting spy struggle moments for Oleg and Copenhagen. For example, most of his job was doing dead drops, which is essentially super secret spy dropping things off. It's like monitoring signal sites, maintaining contact with other undercover spies. For example, if an illegal spy left an orange peel under a specific park bench, this meant I'm in danger.

But if they left an apple core, it meant I'm leaving the country tomorrow. Sounds simple enough, but sometimes it can cause confusion. One time Oleg left a bent nail on the window sill of a public restroom to indicate to a fellow spy. That he would pick up the cat, or that he should pick up the cash at a predetermined dead drop site. But Oleg couldn't just drop off the cash. He couldn't just assume that the spy got the message. He had to wait for the spy to give him an undercover message of like, okay, got it. The message would be that if the other spy left a beer bottle cap at the same window sill. But when Oleg went back to the public restroom,

he starts freaking out. There is a beer bottle cap, but it's a ginger beer cap. What the fuck does that mean? Is it the same as a regular beer bottle cap? Does that mean, okay, wait, ginger is spicy. So does that mean that somebody is hot on his lead? A hot tail? What the fuck does that mean?

Oh, they couldn't sleep the entire night. He's just brooding over what does that mean? He's losing his mind. He can't just, how about, can you explain? No, so he talked to a couple other officers discreetly and they were like, I don't know, I guess beer is beer, right? Drop the money. Turned out to be a good call. The money was picked up successfully. It's just, you know, it's like one of those, if you know, you know, silly little spy moments. Okay. Oleg also did some wild things in Denmark. He was able to gain connections to be able to fabricate new identities. Essentially, he was able to invent a ton of fake Danish identities

with the help of a Moscow forger. This was frickin' huge. Like, he really made a name for himself in the KGB with this. And Oleg tried to recruit new informants and agents. He persuaded a school teacher and his wife to act as a letterbox, meaning they would use them to pass on messages between illegal spies. But it's not a game. This is still real life, and Oleg is doing a lot. And of course, he was under the radar of the Danish intelligence service, PET. PET nicknamed Oleg Uncle Gromsen, I'm not sure why, but he was, you know, causing a lot

of trouble in Denmark. So one evening, Oleg and Yelena invited to a dinner by their policeman friend and wife. So Oleg had befriended Danish policeman to get some insight scoop. And while they were out, Danish intelligence entered Oleg's flat and planted listening devices. But Oleg was one step ahead. He knew that the policeman inviting them for dinner out of the blue was super suspicious. I mean sure they were becoming friends but they weren't that close. So just to be sure, Oleg on his way out to dinner, he shut his apartment door and locked up as usual and put a glob of what glue between the door and the door frame.

When it hardened, it would create a beautiful seal that was invisible to the person that wasn't looking for it. But when Olik got back, the seal had been broken. Olik knew from then on that he had to be careful about whatever he said at home. I'm sure PET was going to have a fun time listening in on Olik's home life. At this point, Olik and his wife, Elena, long story short, they hated each other. All they did was fight. Tensions were high. Oleg wanted kids. Elena didn't. And during a particularly nasty fight, Elena was like, guess what? You stupido. I had an abortion back in Moscow. So take that and suck on your own D. And Oleg felt so betrayed.

He's like, I want it kids. How could you do this to me? This is real or fake. No, this is real fight. They're just fighting. And he knows that the Danish intelligence are listening to every single word. He doesn't even care. And she knows too. Probably. Yeah, she is also KGB. Oh, yeah. She got like a small job. Okay. KGB, translating and stuff. Now Now the- yeah, they would constantly fight. The Danish authorities listened to them fight about practically everything. Like the fact that even though Oleg was considered progressive in terms of Soviet standards, he still believed it was a woman's job to cooking clean without ever complaining. But Yelena argued, there's

way better things for a woman to do than housework. Yes, Yelena, I love you. Also, she too was employed with the KGB. She was working on interpreting and translating foreign messages for them, so it's not like she just lounged around all day. Pretty much the Danish authorities just listened to Marital fight after fight after fight after fight, and they did not learn much about the KGB. But they did gather.

Yeah, this guy is definitely KGB. That's all they got out of it. Like confirmed he's KGB. But what are we gonna do about it? You know, it's funny because you would think that they would immediately kick them out. Yeah. But they don't because they want to learn more. So it's like everything is about like a song and dance. So Danish intelligence start following Oleg more than any other KGB member in Copenhagen.

He just looked the most promising. And because of that, the KGB ordered Oleg to return to Moscow and lay low for a while. But before he left, something happened that changed Oleg's life forever. And quite literally changed the world. The Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. They deployed 2,000 tanks and more than 200,000 troops. By the morning, the country was occupied. Over a hundred civilians died. Oleg was crushed by the news. He felt hatred for the first time. He felt burning, passionate hatred. It was a brutal attack on innocent people. And with that Oleg risked his life for the first time. He called his wife on the apartment landline that he knew without a shadow of doubt was tapped by Danish authorities.

He picked up the phone and he balled his eyes out to his wife. He repeated, it's all over, it's all over. He hoped in some way that the Danish would hear the message and they would know that Ola himself would never agree to this heartless invasion. He would never agree to the massacre of innocent people. He wanted them to know that he wasn't evil like that. He wanted them to know that he had a mind of his own, that he wasn't just another brainwashed, ruthless, heartless KGB follower. He said it was his first deliberate signal to the West. The Danish officers did hear it, and they did think maybe this guy would be willing to cooperate with us, be a double agent. So the next time Oleg was at a party hosted by a West German diplomat, before heading to Moscow, a young Danish man started chatting

it up with Oleg. The guy was super friendly, almost flirtatious, he was drunk even, and the two of them talked about their love for classical music. And finally, the Danish man said, hey Oleg, why don't you head up a local bar with me after this? Oleg's like, oh no I'm good, I actually have to get home. The chatty guy? He was an agent with the Danish intelligence service.

He had deliberately flirted and struck out conversation with Oleg. The plan was to lure Oleg to the bar because the Danish agency believed Oleg was gay. Because of the fireplace mantle magazines. They were going to honey trap him, but it didn't work because Oleg wasn't gay. So Danish intelligence just assumed that he was, you know, because of magazines. I mean, what they were confused. They're like, is this guy? Is this guy so good at spying that he saw right through us, that he saw through this agent? He knew what was going on before. We did.

Does he have like the best instincts in the world? Holy shit. The reality is, Oleg had no idea he was being talked up. He just wasn't gay. So he didn't even know there was a potential trap there. So that was the failed attempt. And after three wonderful years in Denmark, Olegin Yelena was sent back to Moscow.

Oleksa had it was horrible. He was repelled by his own country. The grime, the stench of, block drains, the suffocating bureaucracy, the fear, the corruption, the propaganda that he never even noticed. Now it just stuck out everywhere. The robotic patriotic music that was blaring on every street corner, every second of every day in Moscow, he just wanted to go back to Denmark.

But he couldn't complain. He couldn't seem impatient for his next mission. He had to play it cool. It was the hardest two and a half years of his life. He did his job. Did paperwork, ran errands, avoided his wife, rinse, and repeat. And finally, the light at the end of the tunnel. The couple were going to return back to Copenhagen to seek out and recruit informants and spies.

They were going to try to get Danish spies, right? Now, they're trying to get elected politicians, unionists, diplomats, businessmen, journalists, literally anyone that had access to information that Soviets might want, they were going to try to turn them. So, the KGB knew that Oleg and Yelena would be might want, they were going to try to turn them. So the KGB knew that Olega Nielena would be surveilled when they get back to Denmark, but they had no idea how bad it was going to be. And they also just needed Olega on the ground.

He was one of the best at the time, and Danish people were very unwilling to conform to communism. Most of the time, the only way to get Danish people to give in state secrets was because they were being blackmailed, or for copious, large, insane sums of money. So Oleg is sent to find Danish double agents, and right when Oleg touches down, Danish intelligence is already on him. And they're wondering if Oleg is willing to switch sides. They're pretty optimistic, optimistic enough

to recruit the British intelligence agency MI6. So Danish intelligence calls up MI6, and it is like, hi, can you help us? We want to get this guy as a mole. MI6 sends out Richard Brahmed to establish contact with Oleg. And he's pretty slick with it. Oleg went to a museum one day and Richard just starts striking up a conversation with the guy. He's said from the outside that Oleg was very stern, very unfriendly, looks mean, but once

he started talking, oh boy, the iceiness just melted away that Oleg was very stern, very unfriendly, looked mean, but once he started talking, oh boy, the I-Synist just melted away, Oleg was pretty nice. But Richard's Russian was horrible, so where his Danish and German, Oleg spoke very little English but not much, so all they talked about was a very superficial level. It's hard to be like, hey, don't tell anyone or else, like, we both might die, but like, I work for MI6 and you work for the KGB, so like, you want to work for us on the download or what? You might die. But like, do you want to help the Western world or not?

Like, don't kill me. Like, how do you translate that? I'm just saying. You know, it's a very delicate conversation. You can't just be Google translating it and playing it on speaker in the museum. It's not going to work. Delegate mission and the two can barely communicate.

Two obvious of an approach would scare Oleg away. Too subtle of a signal would be missed by Oleg. So Richard thought the best idea was to throw a big party with a bunch of Soviet officials and invite Oleg. And as bait, well Oleg loved badminton. So they were gonna try this straight approach because the gay approach didn't work last time. So they tell Oleg that a super beautiful badminton player

will be there, Which she was there. She had no idea that she was bait for a Soviet spy. So like love that for her. That's pretty dangerous, but whatever. And Oleg was like, nah, I don't really want to go. And more than anything, Danish intelligence and now British intelligence were just scratching their heads of, what the hell is this guy's sexuality? Is he just asexual? I mean, it just makes sense. We're sending in men. We're sending in women. Nothing is working. Why won't he take the bait?

And then there was a stroke of brilliance. One of Oleg's old friends, a college friend named Kaplan, stopped by Oleg's apartment. And Oleg was shocked. For two reason, it had been decades since they had seen each other. But also Kaplan was a known KGB trader. So if anyone saw them together, Oleg's head would be on a stick.

What? Kaplan tried to play cool and drink whiskey with Oleg, talking about how he worked for an insurance company, how he had a Danish girlfriend. But Oleg knew better. The slight twitch in his eyebrow. The slight movement in his hand when he picked up his whiskey. He was lying, he was shaking.

He was sent by Western intelligence. This was dangerous. Oleg was curious though. He couldn't kick Kaplan out. He wondered, was this the long awaited response to the phone call that he made five years ago? Where he cried and tried to explain in the best way possible that he didn't want any of this.

He didn't want to kill people. Anyway, Oleg and Kaplan couldn't say much because Yelena was on the side confused and panicked. She was ready to kick out Kaplan, kill Oleg for letting him in, and she even wanted to call to turn Oleg in at one point, so she was dealing with a lot of emotions. But eventually Kaplan left and agreed to meet Oleg for lunch later. Oleg and Yelena laid in bed that night, and Yelena just mysteriously said, what a funny coincidence that he should turn up in Copenhagen.

And as always, Oleg had no idea what his wife was thinking. He wouldn't be surprised if she turned him in. But she didn't. Now, Oleg deliberately shows up late for the lunch, making sure he's not being followed. This is the test he doesn't know. So he sits down to talk to Kaplan, and they were, of course, being watched by an MI6 agent

from another table, but the conversation it flowed really easy. It was very, you know, the two connected really well. Kaplan was instructed by MI6 to talk about why he left the party, about the joys of living in the west, mainly to gauge Oleg's reactions. Oleg knew what Kaplan was doing. It was like a song and dance. Oleg can't jump up and down and say me to me to I want that. He doesn't know if he's being tested, he doesn't know if the Soviets are going to find out. It was a tense song and dance. Oleg carefully thought about every single word that he spoke.

He gave enough for Kaplan to write a solid positive report, but not so much that Kaplan would write that Oleg was eager and receptive, because there could also be moles in MI6 that were working for the Soviets. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so it's just crazy, right? I mean, it's just you didn't want it to be downright negative if that makes sense. So they part ways, oh, just wait until you find out how the Soviets find out that Oleg was a mole. Yeah, let me tell you, a lot of different agencies get involved internationally. It's like a whole thing, it's ridiculous. So they part ways, nothing super wild happens. Now every morning Oleg plays badman at a local sports club, and one morning, Oleg is

playing and he sees a familiar face just staring down at him smiling at him. Richard Frickin' Bromhead from the museum. Coincidence, I think not. There was no doubt at this point in Oleg's mind that Richard was MI6. That could only mean one thing, that MI6 was trying to recruit him. So that day, Richard asks Oleg for lunch. He made it very obvious what it was going on here. He said, I would love to go somewhere with you that we wouldn't be overheard. It'll be interesting for me to have a conversation with a member of your service. I think you are one of the

few who will speak honestly with me. So Richard is saying, I want this to be private. I'm not going to write a report on this. I don't want you to write a report on this. And hey, I know your KGB. To Richard's fucking surprise, though, Oleg chooses a restaurant right across from the Soviet Embassy. So Richard runs back.

He contacts MI6 HQ. And he's like, for God's sake, this guy, I think he's trying to recruit me. But Richard didn't know that Oleg was smarter than most KGB informants. He wanted to build a cover for himself. That's why he chose that restaurant. Oleg returned to the embassy and spoke to his superior. Hey guys, this British ambassador wants to have lunch with me.

What do I do? Of course you go Oleg. You should be aggressive and not shy away from an intelligence officer. Why not meet him? Take the offensive position. Britain is a country of high interest to us. So now Oleg effectively had permission to proceed on his lunch date with Richard. In three days later, a sweaty Richard shows up to the restaurant across the street from the Soviet embassy,

and both parties were taking a pretty big risk here. Oleg shows up on time, and Richard starts overthinking. Is he not dry cleaning himself? What's going on? Wait, Oleg came straight to the table when he walked in. He didn't glance around. Maybe he already knew which table I was sitting at because he already has eyes in the restaurant. Is somebody watching us right now? So Oleg sits down.

Neither man show their anxiety, but Oleg was impressed. Richard did his homework. He talked about things that Oleg liked, religion, philosophy, music. Richard said Oleg was totally relaxed and obviously aware what was going on. And near the end, Richard finally started talking more openly, was openly as it gets. He said, Oleg, will you have to file a report about our meeting? Yes, probably, but I'll make it a very neutral one. And with that, the first meeting was over, and it was confusing.

Richard had no idea what to think. Oleg writing a report wasn't good, but keeping it neutral meant that he's lying in some degree to the KGB, which means he's interested, right? I mean, the whole thing was a lot, was a lot. Even though MI6 were pursuing Oleg, Oleg acted like the hunter, not the prey. So Richard is still so confused, is he playing some crazy mind games right now. I guess for Oleg, he could never be too cautious. But I think he took it too far because Richard lost interest in pursuing Oleg.

He felt like there were easier spies to turn. It would be another whole eight months before MI6 established contact with Oleg again. Which turned out okay. Since the KGB forgot about Oleg's meeting with the British intelligence officer, I mean, they didn't forget it, but it wasn't at the forefront of their minds anymore. And Richard reached out, he and Oleg made plans to meet again, this time far away from Soviet

eyes at a hotel restaurant, and Oleg was excited. He knew he wanted to work with the West. And during this meeting the energy just felt different. It felt like there was something buzzing in the air. Richard had a sense of urgency too, and he got straight to the point. He told Oleg, your KGB, we know that you worked in line end of the first chief director, the most secret of all your departments, which is running illegal spies all over the world.

Oleg was impressed. Shocked, really. Oleg, would you be prepared to talk to us about what you know? Tell us who the PR line deputy in your section is, the person in charge of the agent running. Oleg smiled and said, that would be me. Now Richard was shocked. He was impressed.

Would you be prepared to meet with me in a private safe space? Oleg nodded. And that's how Sunbeam was created. That was Oleg's name and MI6, his code name. Most people would not know Oleg's identity. They would know him as Sunbeam. And three weeks later, Sunbeam was officially initiated.

With Richard and Oleg meeting in a dark, almost empty bar, they both had dry clean themselves. They made sure they weren't followed. And Richard told Oleg that he was going to Ireland soon. But he would have a safe house for Oleg to meet his new handler. Another MI6 agent named Philip. Philip spoke fluent German, so this was gonna be perfect. Well, kind of, because at first,

Oleg and Philip didn't really get along. Oleg said he was expecting a big warm, congratulatory welcome. He thought that he was helping out the West, risking his life, and it would be a noble deed in the West with thank him for it. But instead, Philip looked him up and down, and pretty much treated him like a prisoner of war.

Like, just hostile, almost threatening, aggressive, and Oleg was thrown off by the skepticism. So they sit down in this empty apartment slash safe house, and Oleg's like, I'm gonna go first. I'll be helping you guys, but I have three requirements. One, I don't wanna hurt any of my colleagues at the KGB. Two, I don't wanna to hurt any of my colleagues at the KGB. Two, I don't want to be secretly photographed or recorded. Three, no money. I want to work for the West out of ideological conviction and not for monetary gain. Wah. Philip sat there running through the requirements. The second one was moot point.

I mean, they were already secretly recording him. Oleg would never know, because by definition it's secretly done, secretly recording. would never know because by definition it's secretly done, secretly recording. Whatever. But then the last one was really troubling for the MI6 because usually informants like Cash. Cash is a principle of payment for services rendered. It establishes a boundary, a baseline. Cash makes informants feel useful. Also, since we're being nitpicky, why would Oleg want to protect his Soviet colleagues? Did he feel loyalty to the KGB? Oleg said no.

When you go after the people at my station, the ones closest to me, there are nobodies, they're not even doing any harm, but going after them is too close to me. It's going to be obvious, it's me. So Philips said that he would talk to MI6 about it, and thus began a series of monthly meetings at the Safe House. The place was secretly recorded, and Oleg knew it. He was annoyed, but he didn't say anything. He didn't want to make a whole deal about it.

But a lot of goods seem to come out of the whole operation they called sunbeen. Oleg was describing in minute detail the activities of illegal spies, how Moscow planted the spies, how they disguised them as ordinary civilians all around the world. And MI6 said it was such an immense and highly sophisticated operation that Moscow used to create false identities, it was insane.

There was forging of documents, manipulating birth records, burying moles, and then the web of operations to contact control and finance the army of Soviet spies globally, it was insane. And MI6, they were over the moon with this information. They had never in the history had a spy so deep within the KGB. Oleg was the perfect double agent. He was good at his job. He knew exactly what the MI6 wanted, so he wasn't just flooding them with useless information.

He had an incredible memory and attention to detail. Philip would give him an incredibly long list of questions during meeting one. And by meeting two, and by meeting two, Oleg had not only memorized all the questions, but he had found all the answers, memorized them, and brought them back. The whole thing felt fulfilling, fun at times, but incredibly exhausting for Oleg. I mean, he could have easily been caught, dragged back to Moscow and tortured and executed. He had two full-time jobs, and each one he had to work like his life depended on it because

it did. And eventually Oleg went back on his conditions for working with the British. He was down to name his colleagues and even started accepting cash. But all the cash that Oleg earned was deposited for him in a London bank, with the understanding that Oleg wouldn't have access to any of that money until he moved to London, which may never happen. So it's not like he's actually getting them, it was like almost symbolic more so. In the British, they were really thankful. They knew that Oleg was risking his life. Even Yalena had no idea what was going on. I mean, which wasn't too hard, they were basically estranged at this point, and Oleg was about to have an affair. With a woman named Leila, she was 28 years old, 11 years younger than Oleg.

She was Russian, her father had deep roots in the KGB, he was a retired major general, and compared to Yelena, Leila was shy, and she opened up and she was super charming, she had these dark, alluring features she was tall, but overall, she was super, super communist. Like a die-hard stand, I tell you. She was in Denmark because she got a secretarial position at the World Health Organization, which, you know,

allowed her to work overseas. And she's probably doing it for the KGB anyway. Anyway, Leila was invited to a party thrown by an ambassador, and that's where she ran in to Oleg. They hit it off, and Oleg was just so impressed. She was interesting, incredibly original, and eager to be liked. They hit it off and Oleg was just so impressed. She was interesting, incredibly original and eager to be liked. They fell in love and, um, well, you would think that being a higher up at the KGB means that everybody's having an affair, right? Like how all the politicians in America are probably having a fairs? Well, no, because the KGB is super conservative. So likely Oleg's affair could have gotten him fired on this spot. So they had to hide it from the KGB, which they did, but they couldn't hide it from Yelena.

And even though she freaking hated Oleksa, she felt betrayed. And just like that, Oleksa was called back to Russia. Listen, I don't know if it was the affair or not, but out of nowhere after three years in Denmark, Oleksa was instructed to come back. Olegan Yelena agreed to divorce when they get to Moscow. Leyla agreed to join Oleg in a few months so they could get married, which side note, MI6 would really nervous about Oleg coming back to Russia. What if they never wanted to station him outside again?

They told Oleg at any time, you know, you've been enough help at any time if you want. We can sneak you out to London, get you a safe house, a new identity, you can go into hiding and live the rest of your life in London. With your family. I mean, if you do that, the KGB will know that you're a traitor, but we'll hide you from the KGB to the best of our ability. Oleg never considered it.

He was dedicated. He said, I haven't helped enough. I want to find the most important secret, the most important essential elements in Soviet leadership. I want to find out how the system works. I can't find out everything, but I will find out whatever I can. So he's willing to die for the mission? Yeah. So Oleg is not trying to leave the KGB.

He's actually trying to get promoted so that he gets more classified information for the West. I mean, this is really dangerous while thing to do. The West could not help Oleg, especially if he was in Moscow. At the time, they didn't have many safe houses or allies in Moscow, not many resources, essentially Oleg would be on his own. They would just have to wait for Oleg to be stationed outside of Russia again, when and if ever that would happen again. So Oleg goes back, divorces Yelena, marries Lela, and he said that he was so happy.

Lela was warm and loving, and everything Yelena never was, and she wanted kids. But Leila loved the party. She was loyal to the Communist Party. And back from Denmark, they both reacted differently. Oleg was depressed. He missed the freedom, he missed the West, but Leila was more than happy to be home. Inside note, Oleg is 40 years old at this point and he hopes to live in London one day, so he starts while in Russia this time, starts teaching himself English, and within a few years,

he's not perfectly fluent, but he was really good. Which I have to say, to learn a whole new language at that age, wild. But the couple weren't there for four years before being sent out to London, and insane coincidence. It was like MI6's prayers had been heard. Oleg was happy, excited, but terrified because if he went to London, there's a huge chance that he would never come back. He would eventually have to defect, which means that he would never see his mom again or his younger sister. Anyway, Oleg and Leila moved to London and eventually they're joined by their two newborn daughters and they start building a life there. All I hated it. All I get dreamed of London for years and he thought he was going to be the

shining epitome of Western culture. He thought it was going to be Copenhagen on crack, but he said it was pretty grimy. It was not nearly as clean as Copenhagen. He said it honestly wasn't much nicer than Moscow. I guess it's like when people go to New York City. It's like, you know, the streets aren't the cleanest. There's rats everywhere, but it's got its charm, but he was expecting Copenhagen, you know,

which like now it makes me really want to go to Denmark. But he tried not to let the disappointment get him. He had to save the world, you know, had bigger things to worry about, like stealing state secrets, which was only going to get harder because the KGB unit in London was a paranoid bunch. They believed the British were listening to them,

stalking them, eavesdropping on their embassy. Do they have any evidence? No. They believed the British intelligence were so gutted snooping that they don't even know that they're snooping. I mean, that's some next level fucking snooping. So the conspiracy was, British intelligence had built a tunnel from the Kensington Palace

to install bugging equipment under the Soviet Embassy. In response, KGB banned all electric typewriters in case the tapping could be picked up on and deciphered, as well as manual typewriters, so they could only write by hand. There were notices on every door and every wall that you set in caps, do not say names or dates out loud. All the windows were boarded up and they would blast the same monotone Russian music to prevent the British from listening to them. But all of this, all it did was make people miserable and added to the eerie atmosphere of the place. They were only allowed to have conversations in a metal lined windowless room in the basement,

which was super dank all year round, no airflow. So this is the environment that Oleg is trying to steal secrets from, and it's really hard to sneak off during lunch breaks to go meet his handler, but it was a game changer. MI6 was able to get a list from Oleg, a shocking list of Soviet agents that included leading politicians in the UK, trade union officials, Michael Futt, who was a British labor party politician, I mean, MI6 was not expecting this. They were flabbergasted. They had no idea how deeply they were penetrated by the KGB.

Pun intended. And in return, MI6 would provide Oleg with bits and pieces of unimportant information that seemed very important to bring to the KGB. And because of all this valuable information, Oleg was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB and the deputy head of the London station, so he's like pretty much one step down from the head, meaning Oleg had access to the brain of the KGB now. And it was a necessary time, because the tensions of the Cold War were starting to get catastrophic. President Reagan of the United States gave a famous speech regarding the Cold War and

communism. Reagan was wild with it. Reagan of the United States gave a famous speech regarding the Cold War and communism. Reagan was wild with it. Do I support with the Soviet Union was doing absolutely not, okay? But Reagan was like, stirring shit up. He just hated communism, which is all fine and dandy, but like dude, you're the leader of a massive country. Can you represent us a little bit better and not try to, I don't know, start a massive

war and have nuclear fallout. Anyway, in Reagan's speech he addressed American critics who said that he should withdraw nuclear threats. And he said, this is the TLDR by the way, the too long detonate radiation. And he said, yeah, I want to keep America strong and free while we negotiate, but with God's help I'm hoping for their total elimination. Okay. Doesn't total elimination to a bunch of paranoid KGB members sound like Reagan is just threatening to fucking nuke the country?

Like how did he just nuke Japan? How we just nuke everybody? Ta-da! It was an intense aggressive speech that made it seem like he wanted to totally eliminate Russia. Not just the USSR, but like everyone in it. The speech was not good. Why?

Because the KGB felt like they were just threatened. And it was not even, it was not even if it was a matter of when they would be bombed. The USSR immediately launched Operation Ryan, which stood for Operation Nuclear Missile Attack, and it was big. They deployed practically every undercover international spy to collect evidence that NATO was preparing for nuclear war. Some spies were tasked with surveilling the smallest changes in NATO, like if a country's military headquarters got more pizza delivered on any given night, more than usual, why

are there more people there? Are they preparing for something big? How many lights are still on after 10pm at buildings like the Ministry of Defense? The KGB were looking for the smallest little signals that militaries were more active than usual. The KGB even kept a tally of parking spaces at the Pentagon. They were keeping an eye out on the CIA. They kept tabs on American slaughterhouses. If the number of slaughtered cattle dramatically increased in a day, they believed America was going to stockpile hamburgers prior to nuclear war fair. I love that. We're just hamburgers. They're like all these Americans eat as hamburgers. Are they making more hamburgers or not? That is kind of all we eat. Thank you very much.

And then tensions only got worse when Reagan decided to do a nuclear bombing drill. Truly it was a drill, but the KGB was convinced that NATO was claiming it was a drill to catch the USSR off guard. And this was going to turn into a full-scale nuclear warfare. Now, this is a critical point in history because the Soviets were on the brink of mobilizing their own nuclear weaponry at the genuine belief that they were going to be attacked any second now. In fact, maybe they were like one tiny little step away from taking the offense position and fucking nuke him first. Oleg knew he had to do something. He gathered highly classified documents from the Russian Embassy that showed genuine

fear and response that the KGB had and he gave them to the MI6. This was a huge risk. He was physically removing something from the embassy who's risking his life, but Oleg felt like at this point, millions of lives were at stake. This could have been another world war. And MI6 rushed this information to the Prime Minister of the UK, Margaret Thatcher,

who in return reached out to her buddy Reagan and was like, hey, I love you. Apparently they called each other political soulmates, so like do with that what you will, so they actually listened to each other. She's like, hey, I love you. Apparently they called each other political soulmates, so like, do with that what you will. So they actually listened to each other. She's like, listen, I love you. But tone it down. Your speeches against communism are really intense

and you need to scale it back. I don't care about your fucking voters. We're talking about another world war. Like, maybe don't call the Soviets an evil empire. Also, before you hang up, I know you're like busy eating hamburgers according to the USSR. But like, don't say you're trying to get total elimination of the USSR. Because like, that's a little strong, you know.

Anyway, love you. Bye. Ronald Reagan thankfully listened and he toned it all the way down. And he wouldn't have done this because voters are at risk. Like, what else do politicians and scare about? They don't care about anything but voters. But he did this because the CIA told him they do have a spy and this is a real threat.

This is not her playing political games. This is not them being like, hey optics are bad. Like you're about to start a nuclear war and everyone's gonna fucking hate you. He's like, okay, then I will shut up. So Oleg's mission was a success. He might have changed the course of history. Oleg also basically orchestrated the meeting between Margaret Thatcher and

Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This was a huge deal. Oleg wrote a brief on what to expect when Mikhail met Thatcher and Oleg wrote to Thatcher on what to do when she met him. The meeting was a political success because Oleg told each of them exactly how to deal with one another. Margaret Thatcher said, The meeting was a political success because Oleg told each of them exactly how to deal with one another. Margaret Thatcher said, I certainly found Mikhail a man I could do business with. I actually rather liked him.

There is no doubt that he is completely loyal to the Soviet system, but he is prepared to listen and have a genuine dialogue and make up his own mind. He's also quite charming, which that sounds nice, but Margaret Thatcher was known for always saying, the more charming a political adversary, the more dangerous. So you're like, wait, is Oleg like Margaret Thatcher's right-hand man now? Like, are they dating? OK, no.

Only a handful of people knew Oleg's real name and identity. Even the Prime Minister didn't know. She just referred to him as Mr. Collins. That was his code name. Technically, the Prime Minister could have asked for Oleg's identity, but she didn't feel the need to know. Her main concern was that he might defect, and she was worried for the safety of Mr. Collins and his family. Kind of noble? Maybe who knows? But here we come to fuck it up.

The CIA fucked it up. The CIA threw a series of events, like Reagan pretty much wanting to blow up Russia and letting everyone know the CIA became aware that MI6 had one of the best super secret spies in the KGB. And the CIA was pissed. They were like, hey, MI6, if you have a spy, we want the spy too. We like feeling left out. So yeah, we're going to start snooping too.

We don't care if us snooping could literally kill the secrets by that so valuable, but like no taxation without representation. Fuck you. I'm sorry, where did that come from? America really said, we love that you're protecting this top secret valuable source that just saved the world from nuclear war, but like we want to know,

like who is it? We promised we don't tell. Is this named Jake? It's Jake, isn't it? Wait, let me take three guesses. You just like nod. Just like smile. Yeah? It's Jake. Yeah, that's literally. So the CIA sends the chief of Soviet counterintelligence

Aldrich Ames to investigate. Aldrich was good. He wasted no time and immediately came back with a name. Oleg. So shit's about to go down. MI6 can practically smell victory though. Oleg is on the brink of a promotion that could literally change the game. He was about to be made head of the London KGB station. He wouldn't just be at the heart of the KGB.

He would be a part of the heart of the KGB. Victory was so close, the West was about to know all the Soviet secrets. But 12 days before Oleg was promoted, Aldrich Ames betrays the CIA and works for the KGB. He just flipped? He just flipped 12 days before the promotion. He was pissed. He said he felt super underappreciated by the CIA.

He had been working there for over 20 years. His first job was as a painter for the CIA, literally painted CIA walls. And every year, Aldrich continued to receive outstanding performance reviews. He was promoted to the chief of Soviet counterintelligence. And other than being a top dog, did the position come with other things? Aldrich said he didn't care about being a millionaire. But he wanted to live in, he didn't care about being a millionaire. But he wanted to live in, he didn't care about a big house,

but he wanted to move out of his one bedroom apartment, pay off his wife, have a nice expensive wedding with the woman he cheated on his wife with, and buy a car and cash. Not even a Ferrari, just a regular Schmuggler car. But the CIA wasn't paying him enough for that.

Essentially, Aldrich chose to sell out America to the KGB in order to buy the American dream he felt he deserved. And if that's not some weird sick poetic thing, wow. So Aldrich starts sharing state secrets in exchange for Soviet money. And slowly but surely, Oleg's identity is becoming undone. Aldrich was a bit of a drinker, and he doesn't remember if he said Oleg's name outright. I don't think that he did, but soon after Oleg is promoted to the London KGB office, he

gets word that he's needed in Moscow. He's being summoned. So he rushes to tell MI6 about the orders, and he has two days, nearly 48 hours, and they have to decide, okay, does Oleg return to Moscow or wrap it up and move his family into hiding while he's in London? Oleg tried to weigh the facts and he tried to be logical. He said if the KGB knew for sure he was a double agent, he would have been drugged and dragged.

But they were formally inviting him so at the very least, his cover wasn't completely blown. He had no idea what to do, but his life depended on it. Oh my God, What would you do? I would stay. Right? Yeah, I'd be like, I'm sorry, but like, I'm gonna take the tube down to the lift. You know, I'm London now.

I'm fucking British. But for him, like someone who's gone through so much. Yeah. It's like victory so close. Not only that, but it must took so much gut to even get to this point. So he's not a type of person that will back down. This is true. I don't even think I could join like, I don't know. Neighborhood watch?

Yeah, I don't even think I could join the neighborhood watch. That's terrifying. What if I'm in the neighborhood watch and the person I'm doing the neighborhood watches is the killer? That's a good story. Exactly. Now, Oleg wasn't named. He was a suspect, but there were a couple other people that the KGB were looking at. They wanted all these people back in Moscow's stat. MI6 totaled like straight up. If you think this looks bad, stop now. Ultimately, it's your choice, but if you go back and things go wrong, this time we have

a plan. We will execute a plan to get you out of Russia, if you need to be. We have people in Russia now, and all we have to do is a signal, and the plan will be initiated. MI6 was willing to do this because they were forever indebted to Oleg. Like Oleg literally changed the course of history. Oleg chose to go to Moscow.

And MI6 launched an operation called Pimlico, aka Operation Get Olegs Ass Out of Moscow. Every new MI6 officer deployed to Moscow would be briefed on the details, shown a photograph of Pimlico, never told Oleg's name, given instructions on specific site locations to watch out for dead drops to look out for what signs to look for and get ready

to get them out if he signals. Wow, that is. Yeah. Kind of romantic. Yeah, I know, I'm like, are they in love? Wow. So prior to Oleg landing in Moscow, he knew his apartment would be taped the whole time.

And if you think the Danish authority is listening in on you is stressful, imagine it's the KGB in your in Moscow. The KGB even dusted radioactive dust on all of Oleg's clothes. Low enough concentration so Oleg wouldn't be poisoned, but enough so that the KGB could track him on radioactivity alone. And when they left, they locked all three bolts.

And that's how Oleg knew. He was screwed. The KGB was watching him. He couldn't even turn back and run back to London now. No, he would have to get into his apartment and pretend to be normal and every sound and every move that he made, the KGB was gonna be analyzing it. He barely slept that night, which wasn't good because the next day, he was meeting with the deputy head of the KGB was going to be analyzing it. He barely slept that night, which wasn't good because the next day he was meeting with the deputy head of the KGB, Victor with a K. It just seems scarier with a K. Victor wanted to introduce Oleg to two high-level agents

to talk about Britain. Victor would be coming too. Strange, highly unusual, but Oleg couldn't say no. So he gets into the car with Victor. They arrive at a high-walled compound that's used to house visitors and guest a Victor, and they start drinking American brandy, eating plates of sandwiches, cheese, ham, red salm and caviar. And finally, the two men and suits enter the room. Neither of them smile.

Victor doesn't introduce them. All they said to Oleg was, they want to talk to you about Britain, but first let's eat. Olegg drank along with his colleagues and out of nowhere. He said he felt himself lurch from reality. He felt like he was floating out of his body. He was like watching himself have conscious. Everything felt warped. He felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. The drink it was spiked with some sort of truth serum. And the two men, they started interrogating Olegg.

He was so panicked and at first he was dimly aware of what he was saying, with some sort of truth serum and the two men they started interrogating Oleg. He was so panicked and at first he was dimly aware of what he was saying, but a part of his brain spiked alive and just managed to stay self-aware. He kept reminding himself, stay alert, stay alert. He was drugged and interrogated for five hours. Oleg said one of his old teacher's words popped into the forefront of his mind and it was never confess, never confess. So instinctively Oleg started denying everything they accused him of.

Why do you have anti-Soviet books hidden under your bed? No, no, no, no, as a political intelligence agent, I need to read these books, they give me a central background. We know you're a British agent, we have irrefutable evidence of your guilt confess. No, I have nothing to confess. You just confessed a few minutes ago. Confess again. I've done nothing. We know who recruited you in Copenhagen. It was Richard Brahm Head. That's not true. I don't know what you're saying. But you wrote a report about him.

Of course I wrote a report about him. I met him once. I wrote a report about the meeting. He never focused on me particularly. He used to talk to everyone. This went on for five hours until finally, Oleg found himself waking up in a bed, dressed in nothing but an undershirt and underwear. For a moment he had no idea what happened, and slowly fragments of the day prior starts rushing to him and he's beyond panicked. He thought, oh god, I'm freaking finished. But the men had got a car and took Oleg back home.

Oleg walked through the door and collapsed into the chair. He pulled out these pills that MI6 had given him. They were alertness pills. He popped them in his mouth. And during his time, he continued to use them to stay alert. A few days later, Victor confronted Oleg and told him, listen, we know very well that you've been deceiving us for years.

Okay, so I don't think the KGB knew this. I don't think Oleg confessed. I think they just were suspicious of him. So wrong too. Yeah, they didn't want to let him loose, but they definitely were never going to let him out. So they said, we decided that you may stay in the KGB, but your job in London is terminated.

You will have a non-operational unit in Moscow. You should take any vacation days that you're allowed from the London office and return any and all Soviet books to the library. And remember, forever, no phone calls to London. And before walking off Victor said, if only you knew what an unusual source we heard about you from. A.K.A. The Chief of Counter, Soviet Counter Intelligence in the CIA. Oleg was stunned. He scrambled out of the office, popped a few more alertness pills, and eventually Oleg's family were brought back to Moscow to join Oleg.

Leyla said she had never seen her husband so terrible. She said, what's wrong, you look so bad. And Oleg knew he couldn't trust her. He lied to her and said, I have some enemies inside the KGB. They're upset at my position and my meteoric rise in the ranks, and they lied and said I was a fucking spy But of course it's lies. I'm forever loyal to the party. Leila was shocked. Her dad was KGB She knew how competitive it was and she stuck by her husband

She never for a fraction of a second believed Oleg was disloyal Oleg knew it was time. He loved his family, but he needed to get out He dressed casually to go red shopping bag to the shops, to a look at a point. MI6 was watching. He sat on a bench, lit a cigarette. How would Oleg know if MI6 got the message? Someone would walk by holding a chocolate bar. But Oleg was instructed not to stay on post for more than 30 minutes.

Time was running out, he hadn't seen a single person with a chocolate bar yet. At the same time, off duty MI6 officers, which like, can you imagine, they're all walking around with chocolate bars at all times? You know, Roy and Caroline, these are important later, they happened to drive past Olegg and they knew, they spotted Olegg on their drive, they saw the picture, that was Pemlico, they saw the sign, they wanted to make a U-turn

and throw themselves out of the car munching on a Kit Kat bar. But that would alert the KGB because who the hell makes a U-turn and jumps out of the car with a chocolate bar like that's not sus at all, so Roy was forced to drive by cursing himself. But thankfully, just five minutes before Oleg had to leave, another MI6 officer casually strode by, with a Mars bar in his hand.

They locked eyes for a mere second, and Oleg said he wanted to scream, yes, it's me, you gotta help me. But he didn't have to. Because the signal was made. Pimlico had been triggered. It was time to get Oleg's ass out of Russia. The plan was going to need Roy and Caroline Ascotts, a married couple, also British intelligence agents,

and another married couple Arthur and Rachel. They would help Oleg out and cross the finish border. Now, that's so obvious though. The KGB knew that these two suspicious couples were part of British intelligence and now they're both leaving Moscow. Like, I don't think so, right? They need a reason.

Rachel would suddenly have a painful back. The KGB knew that she had other health problems in the past because they bugged their apartment and they heard Rachel naturally complain because she did have health problems. So she would start complaining. Her husband would offer to drive her to Helsinki to see a specialist because airline tickets were too expensive.

Caroline, a close friend who happened to be there said, you know what, why don't we stop by the finished capital and do some shopping before we go to Helsinki? Now, before Oleg is snuck out of the country, he spent more time with his family. He said he tried to stare at his daughter and tried to imprint them in his memory. He wanted to use every opportunity to remember his family's faces.

He did try to test Leila one night. He said, you enjoyed London, didn't you? Oh, yeah, it was magical. I missed it already. The parks, the music. You know how you said you wanted the girls to go to the English schools? Yeah, sure. Well, I've enemies here, and we're never gonna get sent back to London, but I have an idea. We can go visit your family and then slip over to the mountains into Turkey. We could escape, go back to Britain. What do you think? Shall we run away? Layla looked at them and just said, don't be idiotic.

Layla said so herself. She would have given him 24 hours before turning him in. And then the signal was given. It was the day. So what does Oleg do before he escapes? He cleans his apartment that's what. He knew very soon the KGB would tear the entire place up and he wanted to make it presentable. He was classy like that.

So Oleg took one last look at the place. His family was in home. He would never see them again, likely. He did, he would, but likely. Oleg then ran, took a train, hit chiked, and ran some more, and finally got to the meeting point to the MI6 couples. Oleg was confused as to why there was a fucking baby in the car, but hey, he'll deal with it, because that baby is going to save his life.

They rushed him into the trunk, he was given water, a medical pack, they covered him with an aluminum space blanket. The whole thing took 80 seconds. Oleg was now in complete darkness, not knowing what was going on inside. He changed out of his clothes in the trunk, burped a few times, and the couple was so panicked, Rachel turned on the music to cover the sounds.

Olega hated it. It was the most annoying pop music. And all the while, the British intelligence officers are thinking, the biggest problem we have is Olega has a smell. It's not unpleasant, but it's strong. And Rachel said it was the smell of Russia. It's not something that you would find in an ordinary English car filled with English people. The Sniffer dogs would register

something smelled differently from the passengers. So the first border check, a guard wave them through, without a document check. It's likely they expected diplomatic party, so they were just kind of like rush through. The next checkpoint went smoothly as well, and then the final checkpoint was the actual border. So while they're waiting for their turn, Rachel noticed a few sniffing dogs, so she turned up the radio music, casually opened a bag of chips, and dropped a few on the ground outside the car. These were no ordinary chips.

These were cheese and onion chips. The Soviet dogs had never smelled anything like that before because it wasn't sold in the USSR. They were British chips. These were cheese and onion chips. The Soviet dogs had never smelled anything like that before because it wasn't sold in the USSR. They were British chips. It was dank. It's like sour cream and onion chips, like really dank chips. So the dogs are going crazy? Yeah, Rachel even tossed one at the dog who woofed it down and the handler was not happy. And then another dog came sniffing dangerously close to the trunk where Oleg was hiding. So Caroline whipped out a weapon that was never seen in the cold war. She got her baby out,

placed her on top of the trunk and started changing her diaper which was filled to the brim with poop. Then she drew up the diaper on the ground next to the sniffer dog which sniffed it, turned its nose and left. This is like a movie. Yeah. 15 minutes later, the guards came back with their approved paperwork. And they were in Finland now. Just like that. There were going to be more checkpoints, but it's finished checkpoints. And Oleg had no idea.

Rachel wanted to give him some peace of mind, so she turned off the horrible pop music he hated and started blasting classical music. But not any classical music, a song composed by a finished composer. They were playing Finlandia. Oh. Wait, that's in quite easy, is that? It's a lot harder than I made it seem I'm sure.

Oh, good, good. I mean, it was like an epic ending to an epic spy movie, right? But Oleg's story would not have a happy ending. Leyla and his kids were forced to be on her house to rest for six years, until the Soviet Union collapsed. Then eventually, they were reunited with Oleg. There are articles about them that they

seem happy and reunited and stuff, but it wasn't. It was misrepresented to sell a love story. There was no love. The entire family felt betrayed. After that meeting, Oleg was completely estranged from his family. I believe even his daughters. He now lives with a new name in a safe house, and he can't see the rest of his family again. His mom, his sister, Nesus, nephew. Technically,

if Oleg ever returned to Russia, he would likely be executed. So he primarily lives the life of solitude, kind of like quarantine. Listen, Oleg is a hero in a lot of ways. He technically changed the course of history and he might have saved millions of lives. But some say he's also a villain in some ways. He's a villain to his wife, his kids, his first wife, Elena. A lot of people have theories of why Oleg did this. Some people think that he had a martyr complex. He just wanted to be a hero. He didn't do this for the West. he didn't do this because he hated communism, he did

this because he had an ego. Some people say he just, as an agent he wanted more thrill. There's a lot of reasons why he might have done it, risked his life because it wasn't for the money, he wasn't getting that much money. But I don't know what do you guys think, does it even matter? Does it even matter if he risked his life to save people? What is motive wise? What are your thoughts? And I hope you guys enjoyed this week's main episode and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye!