Move over James Bond. Spies are making the headlines this week, but the truth proves stranger than fiction. A bizarre attempt is underway to swap agents between the United States, Israel and the Soviet Union, with suspected moles at the centre of the intrigue. Years later, after the Cold War’s end, espionage anxieties resurface as the US demands Russia halt spying operations following the exposure of a senior CIA mole.
In Britain, newly released files reveal a wartime Nazi spy network operating on home soil – and a cunning MI5 counter-operation to neutralise the threat. On the battlefield, President George H W Bush declares victory in Kuwait after just 100 hours of ground war, Nato fires its first shots in anger in Bosnia, and armed men seize Crimea in a move that foreshadows later conflict in Ukraine.
