Aldrich Ames, who has died in prison aged 84, was the most senior CIA officer ever to be exposed as a Russian spy. Ames, whose father had also been a CIA officer, was recruited in 1967. At that point, Ames told him as much as he knew about a top MI6 agent inside the KGB. Ames later told his CIA and FBI interrogators that he realised then that having “crossed a line, I could never step back”. Polyakov, the most important of the CIA agents to be executed, was not arrested until 7 July 1986.

Source: The Guardian January 08, 2026 17:39 UTC