George Blake, the spy who betrayed U.K., dies

He exposed hundreds of Western agents

FILE PHOTO: Soviet secret agent George Blake gestures as he speaks at a presentation of a book of letters written by other spies from a British prison, in Moscow June 28, 2001. Blake -- a notorious traitor in Britain and legendary hero in Russia -- escaped from a British jail in 1966 while serving a 42 year sentence for passing secrets to Moscow./File Photo

George Blake, who died in Russia on Saturday at the age of 98, was the last in a line of British spies whose secret work for the Soviet Union humiliated the intelligence establishment when it was discovered at the height of the Cold War.

Britain says he exposed the identities of hundreds of Western agents across Eastern Europe in the 1950s, some of whom were executed as a result of his treason.

His case was among the most notorious of the Cold War, alongside those of a separate ring of British double agents known as the Cambridge Five.

Unmasked as a Soviet spy in 1961, Blake was sentenced to 42 years in London's Wormwood Scrubs prison. He escaped in 1966 with the help of other inmates and two peace activists.