LONDON (AFP) — A former KGB agent who passed Soviet secrets to Britain during the Cold War received a top award from Queen Elizabeth II Thursday.
Oleg Gordievsky escaped to Britain from Moscow in 1985 after giving the KGB men tailing him the slip while he was out jogging, and became the highest-ranking defector from the Soviet Union to Britain.
For his services to British security he received the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) -- an honour shared by his fictional counterpart as superspy, James Bond -- at Buckingham Palace.
Dressed in a top hat, tails and grey gloves, the one-time KGB colonel said receiving the award from the queen was "extraordinarily intimidating", particularly the complex protocol surrounding the occasion.
"I feel elated. I was excited but I was nervous," he said afterwards.
"They said it's simple but it wasn't simple at all. It's extraordinarily intimidating.
"I turned around and then back again and walked three steps back. I made a mistake."
Gordievsky, 69, who says he still has a death threat hanging over him, said the queen did not mention the time he spent spying on Britain for the Soviets as the KGB's London bureau chief.
"She was very tactful. She said 'Thank you very much for everything you've done for Britain'," he said.
Last year, Gordievsky blamed the Kremlin for the death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, whose death by poisoning in London damaged relations between London and Moscow and revived memories of the Cold War.
Gordievsky's award was announced in June.
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