One of the most consequential Russian defectors in history was turned away several times by the US before he was eventually accepted by Britain and exfiltrated with his family from Russia, according to revelations in a new book.
Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who spent years copying top-secret documents on some of the most sensitive Soviet spies and operations, was brought out of Russia in 1992 by MI6. His archive of copied documents was exfiltrated separately. But London got hold of his trove only after Mitrokhin gave up trying to get the US to take him seriously.
