TRIBUTES have been paid for former Russian spy and national hero George Blake, who died in Moscow on Saturday at the age of 98.

The country’s spy agency broke the news, announcing: “We received some bitter news – the legendary George Blake passed away.”

President Vladmir Putin hailed Mr Blake as a “brilliant professional” and a man of “remarkable courage.”

Mr Blake was born in Rotterdam to a Dutch mother and an Egyptian Jewish father. His cousin was Henri Curiel, senior member of the Egyptian Communist Party.

He switched sides after being captured in North Korea and witnessing the atrocities committed by “the American military machine.”

His role as a double agent was exposed soon after his return to Britain and in 1960 he was jailed for 42 years. But in 1966, much to the embarrassment of the British state, he led a daring escape from Wormwood Scrubs and made his way undetected to East Berlin.

He remained committed to communism which he described in a 1990 interview as “an ideal which, if it could have been achieved, would have been well worth it. I thought it could be, and I did what I could to help it, to build such a society. It has not proved possible. But I think it is a noble idea and I think humanity will return to it.”