Cold war mystery solved by Russian sailor's confession
London, Nov 16 (UNI) A Russian sailor has spilled the beans on a Cold War mystery by admitting to have killed a British spy in the 1950s.
The sailor, Eduard Koltsov, told filmmakers he cut Cdr Lionel Crabb's throat as he caught him placing a mine on the Soviet ship Ordzhonikidze, which was bringing Joseph Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev and other leaders for talks with the then British Prime Minister Anthony Eden in 1956.
''I saw a silhouette of a diver in a light frogman suit who was fiddling with something at the starboard, next to the ship's ammunition stores. I swam closer and saw that he was fixing a mine,'' the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.
He cut the throat of the Englishman with a dagger which he revealed to the Russian film crew.
The incident in Portsmouth soured the relations between the then USSR and Britain and ended any hopes of rapprochement.
The old sailor told the filmmakers he needed to clear his conscience before he died.
UNI