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SPECIAL EDITION: SPYSCAPE lands in London. We round up stories in the classic capital of spycraft: hotel for spies, escape or die, the next MI6 Chief and more!
News
The Next MI6 Chief
Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) is expected to name its first-ever female Chief, according to reports from senior Whitehall sources. Insiders suggest the Prime Minister has approved the candidate, who could take over as early as this autumn. Dame Barbara Woodward, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, was among the final three candidates interviewed for the top job last week. The other two candidates are senior MI6 officers whose identities remain undisclosed. The role, "C," short for Chief, oversees MI6's global operations, managing the UK's foreign intelligence activities and high-level briefings with Cabinet and international allies. Sir Richard Moore, who currently holds the position, is stepping down after five years.
Image Credit: Shutterstock/I Wei Huang
True Spies
Russia's Laundromat: Ministry Of Thieves
Could you shine a light in the shadows?
All around the world, dirty money pollutes public and private life. Those who wield it are a diverse cast of business people, politicians, and criminals—and sometimes, they're all three.
Roman Borisovich knows this world from both sides. Once a banker inside Russia's elite circles, he saw the scale of corruption up close—then walked away to expose it. His mission? Uncover the global network of enablers laundering billions stolen from the Russian people.
That network runs straight through the UK. Flashy homes, anonymous shell companies, and secretive bank accounts have turned London into an oligarch wealth hub. And Roman doesn't just track it—he fights it. Undercover, on camera, and in Parliament, he'll have to use every tool in his arsenal to uncover and name those responsible. But speaking out comes at a cost. Roman is targeted, watched, and warned, but still presses on.
Join Roman Borisovich in this week's podcast selection, 'Russia's Laundromat: Ministry of Thieves', and follow the money trail through a shadow world of secrets, power, and stolen fortunes.
Who was the last man put to death at the Tower of London?
In 1941, German spy Josef Jakobs became the last person executed at the Tower of London. He parachuted into England carrying forged papers, a radio transmitter, and a pocketful of false identities.
But things didn’t go to plan. Jakobs broke his ankle during the landing, and local farmers quickly captured him. Authorities interrogated and tried him shortly afterward, then sentenced him to death. On August 15, 1941, a firing squad shot him in the Tower’s miniature rifle range. The chair Jakobs sat in still survives in the Tower’s archives.
Articles
Escape Or Die
How do you escape Moscow with a death sentence on your head?
Few agents played the game better than Oleg Gordievsky. As a senior KGB officer secretly working for MI6, he gave British intelligence a steady stream of insight into Soviet operations at the height of the Cold War.
MI6 recruited him in the 1970s, and he rose through the KGB ranks in London—eventually heading its UK station. The Soviets praised him. Meanwhile, MI6 quietly gathered intelligence that helped defuse Cold War tensions, including a critical warning about a 1983 NATO exercise the Soviets mistook for a possible nuclear first strike.
When the KGB grew suspicious, they took Gordievsky to Moscow. But MI6 had a plan. In a covert mission known as Operation Pimlico, British spies smuggled him out of the USSR in the boot of a car. It remains one of MI6's boldest escapes. Discover more about Gordievsky's daring extraction in this SPYSCAPE article.
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Which London hotel hosted both British agents and Soviet traitors?
Tucked behind a grand wrought iron gate in Westminster, St. Ermin’s Hotel looks like any other luxury property. But for over a century, it’s played host to some of the most pivotal espionage activity in British history.
During World War II, the hotel became a hub for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. The newly formed SOE—the covert unit tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines—set up shop on an entire floor. At the same time, senior MI6 officers operated just a few rooms away.
And yet, not all who walked its halls were on the same side. In the 1950s, Soviet double agents Kim Philby and Guy Burgess used the hotel’s Caxton Bar as a discreet meeting point with their Russian handlers. Even Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, spent time at St. Ermin’s as part of his wartime naval intelligence role. The walls may not talk, but they’ve certainly heard a lot.
Image Credit: St. Ermin's Hotel
Quirky
Blake Prison Break
Could you escape a maximum security facility?
In 1966, KGB spy George Blake pulled off one of the most improbable escapes in British history. Sentenced to 42 years in Wormwood Scrubs for betraying dozens of MI6 agents, Blake slipped past maximum security and vanished behind the Iron Curtain.
Irish socialist Michael Bourke helped to set the plan in motion. As fellow inmates watched a movie, Blake climbed through a window that had a bar removed by a convicted burglar. Outside, Bourke waited with a walkie-talkie and a rope ladder made from knitting needles.
Blake had just five minutes before the guards made their rounds. He scaled the rope, leapt 20 feet down the outer wall, sprained his ankle, and dove into the getaway car. Weeks later, he was smuggled across Europe and into East Berlin inside a camper van.
His escape embarrassed British intelligence and fascinated the public. He died in Moscow in 2020, aged 98, never having served more than five of his 42 years. Discover more here.
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