Ex British/KGB Spy on Hunger Strike outside Downing St

louth | miscellaneous | other press Thursday December 16, 2004 12:39 by Brian Vernon

Victor Makarov once spied for Britain from the heart of the KGB, spending five years in a labour camp after he was caught. After MI6 helped him defect to this country, he hoped for a new and prosperous beginning in the nation for which he had risked his life.

But the reality has been very different - living on a disability allowance and a few official handouts, he has become the spy who has been left out in the cold, embittered and poverty-stricken. Now a man who is a reminder of aspects of an era both sides hoped would be quietly forgotten, has re-emerged: a former spy who wants to claim what he believes is his due.

Today, Mr Makarov, now 49, says he will begin an indefinite hunger strike, camped on the pavement in Whitehall, opposite the gates to Downing Street, in support of his claim for an annual defectors' pension. He said: "It is not a real hardship for me. I have been in a Soviet labour camp. I know about hunger.'' He will have just a sleeping bag for warmth.

And in a strange twist :

http://cryptome.org/makarov.htm