- Vladimir Putin
President Vladimir Putin said air strikes did nothing to settle the situation around Iraq and urged any action taken against it to be sanctioned by the United Nations.
- Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (30 August 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a lieutenant-colonel in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and later a Russian dissident and writer. A son of a physician, Litvinenko was schooled in Nalchik, before being drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a private. After graduating in 1985 from the Kirov Higher Command School, he became a platoon commander in an Internal Troops regiment.
- Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba. He led the revolution overthrowing dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and shortly after was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Cuba. Castro became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in 1965, and led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party socialist republic. In 1976 he became president of the Council of State as well as of the Council of Ministers.
- Andrei Lugovoi
Andrei Lugovoi (Lugovoy) (Born 1966 in Azerbaijan) is a former KGB operative and millionaire who met with Alexander Litvinenko on the day Litvinenko fell ill (1 November, 2006). Litvinenko died later that month from radiation poisoning caused by polonium-210, and on 22 May 2007 British officials charged Lugovoi with Litvinenko's murder, announcing they would seek his extradition from Russia.
- Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (February 9, 1984) was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the CPSU from November 12, 1982 until his death just fifteen months later.
- Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev ; surname more accurately romanized as Khrushchyov ; – September 11, 1971) was the chief director of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. He was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. He was removed from power by his party colleagues in 1964 and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev.
- Mario Scaramella
Mario Scaramella (born April 23, 1970) is an Italian lawyer and self-styled security consultant who came to international prominence in 2006 in connection with the poisoning of the ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko. He served as an investigator and adviser to the controversial Mitrokhin Commission set up by Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party in order to investigate supposed links between Berlusconi's political rivals, …
- Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby or H.A.R. Philby, (1 January, 1912 – 11 May, 1988) was a high-ranking member of British intelligence, a communist, and spy for the Soviet Union's NKVD and KGB. In 1963, Philby was revealed as a member of the spy ring known as the Cambridge Five, along with Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross. Of the five, Philby is believed to have done the most damage to British and American intelligence, …
- Christopher Andrew
Christopher Maurice Andrew (born 23 July 1941) is a British historian and professor with a special interest in international relations and in particular the history of intelligence services. He is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, former Chair of the History Faculty at Cambridge University, Official Historian of the Security Service (MI5), Honorary Air Commodore of 7006 Squadron (Intelligence) in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, …
- Oleg Gordievsky
Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, CMG (born 10 October 1938 in Moscow, Russia), was a Colonel of the KGB and KGB Resident-designate ("rezident") and bureau chief in London, who defected to the United Kingdom. He became the highest-ranking KGB defector ever.
- Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (May 21 1921 – December 14 1989) was an eminent Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.
- Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (March 3 1922-January 23, 2004) was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, and co-author with Christopher Andrew of "The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West", a massive account of Soviet intelligence operations based on copies of material from the archive. Work on the second volume, "The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB in the World", …
- Oleg Kalugin
Oleg Danilovich Kalugin, (born September 6, 1934) is a former KGB spy. He was the longtime head of KGB operations in the United States and later a critic of the agency.
- Dmitry Kovtun
Dmitry Kovtun is a Russian businessman and ex-KGB agent who met the poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko several times in London, the last time hours before Litvinenko fell ill. Kovtun is currently hospitalised with radiation poisoning in Moscow.
- Nikolai Patrushev
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev is the current Director of the Russian FSB, the successor organization to the KGB. He was born in Leningrad and graduated from Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute in 1974, where worked as an engineer at his department.
- Yevgeny Primakov
Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov is a Russian politician and a former Prime Minister of Russia. He was also the last Speaker of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet, and the Russian Foreign Minister responsible for changing the foreign policy from largely unconditional support of the United States to a more nationalist defense of Russia's interests. Primakov was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR and grew up in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR.
- Klaus Fuchs
Emil Julius Klaus Fuchs (December 29, 1911 - January 28, 1988) was a German-born theoretical physicist and atomic spy who was convicted of surreptitiously supplying information on the British and American atomic bomb research to the USSR during, and shortly after, World War II. Fuchs was an extremely competent scientist, …
- James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton, known to friends and colleagues as Jim and nicknamed "the Kingfisher", was a long-serving chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) counter-intelligence (CI) staff (Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence/ADDOCI). He is known as the "mother" of today's CIA for his deep role in its formation and operations.
- Georgi Markov
Georgi Ivanov Markov (March 1, 1929 - September 11, 1978) was a Bulgarian dissident. Markov originally worked as a novelist and playwright, but in 1969, he defected from Bulgaria, then a communist state under the leadership of President Todor Zhivkov. After moving to the West, he worked as a broadcaster and journalist for the BBC World Service, Radio Free Europe, and the German Deutsche Welle. He criticised the Bulgarian communist regime many times on radio.
- Golda Meir
Golda Meir (born Golda Mabovitz on 3 May 1898, died December 8, 1978, also known as Golda Myerson from 1917-1956), was one of the founders of the State of Israel. Meir served as the Minister of Labour, Foreign Minister, and then as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from March 17, 1969, to June 3, 1974. As the BBC put it, Golda Meir was the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet was coined for Margaret Thatcher.
- Yuri Nosenko
Lt. Col. Yuriy Nosenko was a KGB defector who became a figure of significant controversy within the U.S. intelligence community. His case was documented in the Family jewels documents, and handled by CIA officer George Kisevalter.
- Vladimir Kryuchkov
Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov is a former Soviet politician and a Communist Party member since 1944. Kryuchkov joined the Soviet diplomatic service, stationed in Hungary until 1959. He then worked for the Communist Party Central Committee for eight years, before joining the KGB in 1967 together with his patron Yuri Andropov. He was appointed head of the First Chief Directorate (FCD) in 1974 (the KGB Foreign Operations) and Deputy Chairman in 1978.
- Anatoliy Golitsyn
Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn CBE (born August 25, 1926 in Piryatin, Ukrainian SSR) is a Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about long-term deception strategy of the KGB leadership. He supplied information about many important Soviet agents working in the West. He is an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and is now an American citizen.
- Andrei Nekrasov
Andrei Nekrasov is a Russian film and TV director from Saint Petersburg. Andrei Nekrasov studied acting and directing at the State Institute for Theatre and Film in his native Saint Petersburg. He studied comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Paris, taking a master's degree, and film at Bristol University Film School (RFT). In 1985, he assisted Andrei Tarkovsky during the filming and editing of "The Sacrifice".
- Menachem Begin
"'"' (August 16, 1913 – March 9, 1992) was a Polish-Jewish head of the Zionist underground group the Irgun, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the first Likud Prime Minister of Israel. Though revered by many Israelis, Begin’s legacy remains highly controversial and divisive. As the leader of Irgun, Begin played a central role in Jewish military resistance to the British Mandate of Palestine, but was strongly deplored and consequently sidelined by mainstream Zionist leadership.
- George Blake
George Blake (born Georg Behar, November 11, 1922) is a former Dutch-British spy who was actually a double agent for the Soviet Union. Born in Rotterdam of mixed parentage; his mother was Dutch and his father was an Egyptian who was a naturalized British citizen.. He was born as George Behar to one of the eminent Jewish families of Amsterdam.
- Lennart Meri
Lennart Georg Meri (March 29, 1929 – March 14, 2006) was a writer, film director and politician who served as President of Estonia from 1992 to 2001. Meri was a leader of the Estonian independence movement.
- Józef Oleksy
Józef Oleksy is a Polish politician, former chairman of Democratic Left Alliance ("Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej", SLD). From 1968 to 1990 he was a member of the communist Polish United Workers' Party. Between April 21 2004 and January 5 2005 he was the speaker (marszałek) of the Sejm, lower house of Polish parliament. He is also a former Minister of Internal Affairs, and was the Prime Minister of Poland from 1995 until 1996, …
- Walter Gotell
Walter Gotell (March 15, 1924 - May 5, 1997) was a German/British actor, known for his role as General Gogol, head of the KGB, in the Bond films. Gotell was born in Bonn, Germany. He started in films as early as 1942, usually playing German henchmen, but others role also, in films like "The African Queen" (1951), "Ice Cold in Alex" (1958), "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), 55 Days At Peking (1963), Lancelot And Guinevere (1963), …
- Rashid Nurgaliyev
Rashid Gumarovich Nurgaliyev is the minister of the interior of Russia. He was born in Zhetiqara (Kazakhstan, on October 81956. He is an ethnic Tatar. In 1981-1995 he worked in the KGB Directorate of Karelia and its successor, Security Ministry of Karelia, in 1992-1994 led by Nikolai Patrushev.
- Viktor Cherkesov
Viktor Vasilyevich Cherkesov is a Russian security services official. He graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1973. In 1975 – 1991 he worked in Leningrad and Leningrad Oblast Directorate of KGB and prosecuted political dissidents, including members of Democratic Union. In 1992 – August 1998, Cherkesov led Saint Petersburg Directorate of MBR/FSK/FSB, successor organization to KGB.
- Melita Norwood
Melita Norwood, née Sirnis was a British civil servant who, for a period of about 40 years following her recruitment in 1937, supplied the KGB (and its predecessor agencies) with state secrets from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association (a cover for nuclear research), including the schematics for the British atomic bomb in 1945, which the Soviet Union successfully duplicated in one year.
- John Barron
John Barron (1930, Wichita Falls, Texas - February 24, 2005) was an American journalist who exposed Communist activities. Barron, son of a Methodist minister, graduated from the University of Missouri, and studied Russian in the United States Naval Postgraduate School. In 1965, Barron joined the Washington bureau of Reader's Digest.
- Viktor Ivanov
Viktor Petrovich Ivanov (Russian: Виктор Петрович Иванов, born May 121950, Novgorod, Soviet Union) is a Russian politician and businessman, former KGB officer, who served in the KGB Directorate of Leningrad and its successors in 1977 - 1994. In 1987 - 1988 as a KGB officer he took part in the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
- Yuri Shvets
Yuri B. Shvets (b. 1952) was a Major in the KGB during the years 1980-1990. From April 1985 to 1987 he worked in the Washington Rezidentura of the KGB. He graduated in International Law from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia when it was still named the Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University Shvets recruited two key sources of political intelligence whom he referred to as Sputnitsa and Socrates. Sputnisa is identified as a journalist working in Washington, …
- David Lehman
David Lehman was born in New York City in 1948. He graduated from Columbia College and attended Cambridge University in England as a Kellett Fellow. He is the author of five collections of poems, The Evening Sun (Scribner, 2002), The Daily Mirror: A Journal in Poetry (2000), Valentine Place (1996), Operation Memory (1990), and An Alternative to Speech (1986).
- Nicholas Daniloff
Nicholas Daniloff is an American journalist who graduated from Harvard University and was most prominent in the 1980s for his reporting on the Soviet Union. He came to wider international attention on September 2, 1986 when he was arrested in Moscow by the KGB and accused of espionage. The Reagan administration took the position that the Soviets had arrested Daniloff without cause, in retaliation for the arrest three days earlier of Gennadi Zakharov, …
- Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Olegovich Pavlovsky (born in Odessa on March 5, 1951) is a Russian political scientist.
- Alexander Lebedev
Alexander Lebedev (born 16 December 1959) is a Russian billionaire, referred to as one of the Russian tycoons. In March 2006, he was listed by "Forbes" magazine as one of the richest Russians and as the 194th richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $3.5 billion. He is a member of the state Duma, a former KGB agent, owns a third of Aeroflot, and is part owner of Novaya Gazeta
- Stepan Bandera
Stepan Andriyovych Bandera (January 1 1909-October 15 1959) was a Ukrainian nationalist leader who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). He was born in the village of Uhryniv Staryi, in the Kalush District in Galiсia (Stanyslaviv Oblast), which at that time was ruled by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. His father, Andriy Bandera, was a Greek-Catholic priest in Uhryniv Staryi. His mother, Myroslava Bandera, was from an old clerical family, …