UK - Winston Churchill banned an electronics expert from Downing Street after an MI5 warning that Soviet spies might use him to bug the prime ministerial hearing aid.
Churchill, then nearing his eighties, had an elaborate desktop loudspeaker system installed at No 10 during his second premiership in the early 1950s.
Files released at the National Archives in Kew show that Roger Hollis, then deputy director-general of MI5, warned Downing Street about the risk of continuing to employ Alexander Poliakoff, a Russian émigré, to service the unit.
The warning over Poliakoff occurred in 1953, the year after the Americans had found a bug in the beak of the eagle in the great seal of the United States at their Moscow embassy. They later found another 40; 14 more were found at the British embassy. (more)
