Soviet Espionage Legend Dies

Legendary Soviet spy Gevork Vartanian, who helped foil a Nazi plot to kill Allied leaders in Tehran during World War II, has died in Moscow aged 87.

Operating in Tehran during World War II, he tracked German commandos who had arrived to attack a summit attended by Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.

Realizing they were being followed, the Germans called off the attack.

Robert Service is British historian and the author of a forthcoming book Spies and Commissars.