From ambassador to Moscow during perestroika to author of Afgantsy, the British diplomat who knew Russia from the inside
'On Christmas Day 1991 we were still wearing our funny hats and eating our mince pies when Mikhail Gorbachev came on television to tell the world that he had resigned as President of the Soviet Union,' recalling the end from Moscow.
British diplomat and author who served as ambassador to the Soviet Union (1988–1991) and then to the Russian Federation (1991–1992), witnessing perestroika, the August 1991 coup, the rise of Yeltsin, and the Soviet collapse from the inside. On close personal terms with Gorbachev, he later served as foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister John Major and chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. His 2011 book Afgantsy, the key revisionist account of the Soviet-Afghan War, argues that the Soviet 40th Army was never defeated on the battlefield and withdrew in good order, challenging the Western 'Soviet Vietnam' narrative and recasting the war as a failure of intelligence and political judgment, not of arms.
Career Timeline
- 1951–1952Served in military intelligence, Vienna
- 1955Joined HM Diplomatic Service
- 1963–1966Posted to British Embassy Moscow (first tour)
- 1975–1978UK Permanent Representation to the EC, Brussels
- 1982–1984Minister for Trade, British Embassy Washington
- 1984–1988Deputy Under-Secretary, FCO; G7 Sherpa team
- 1988–1992British Ambassador to the Soviet Union, then Russia
- 1992–1993Foreign Policy Adviser to PM; Chairman, JIC