Valerie Pettit

Valerie Pettit, OBE (13 June 1929 – 25 March 2020) was a British

The MI6 was able to recruit Oleg Gordievsky as a double agent in October 1974 while he was a KGB public relations line officer in Copenhagen. By 1982, he was posted in London and three years later was appointed resident-designate of the Soviet mission. Pettit became his MI6 case officer.^[3] He was, however, exposed by Aldrich Ames, a disgruntled CIA officer, in 1985.^{[citation needed]} On May 28 of the same year, he was ordered to fly back to Moscow for a meeting with the KGB Chairman and the head of First Chief Directorate. He was subjected to interrogation and close surveillance after his arrival. Fearing for his life, Gordievsky requested emergency exfiltration.

Despite the generally-accepted notion that an escape would be impossible, Pettit drafted an operation plan that was eventually approved by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.^[4] During this period, she was already the deputy to the head of MI6's Soviet operations section.^[5] The rescue, called "Operation Pimlico", transported Gordievsky to the Finnish border in the trunk of a diplomat's car after an elaborate rendezvous in Moscow, then to the UK by way of Norway.^[4]

Later years

In the account of Gordievsky's escape in The Spy and the Traitor, Pettit was referred to as “Veronica Price”. After retirement, Pettit lived with her mother and sister in