Mike Murtagh's memoir traces his journey from 1950s South Wales to encounters with danger, espionage, and unique insights into the Russian psyche and military.

Spying on the Kremlin details the background and unintentional turning points in what has been an eventful life. Mike Murtagh has had a gun stuck in his face, been seconds from a mid-air collision, been struck by lightning in an aircraft, made two emergency landings, had a sniper-sight trained on him, been the target of at least one honeytrap, nearly bled to death in India, been threatened by people working for the Azeri Mafia, worked on a movie with three Oscar-winners and may have inadvertently eaten someone.

It’s a memoir of a working-class boy in an unlikely life journey from austere 1950s South Wales to the political theater of The Kremlin and beyond via service as an RAF Officer and as a Diplomat. His experiences of living and working in Russia has given him valuable insights into the Russian psyche, as well as the workings and capabilities of the Russian military which still have currency and relevance.

Given his humble origins, none of this was ever supposed to have happened to him and could not have been predicted. Such opportunities were almost unavailable to working-class boys at the time. However, sometimes in an almost accidental fashion, he grasped the opportunities that came his way.

• Cover
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Beginnings
• Isle of Wight Festival, 1970
• Swansea – A Postscript
• Manchester – Early Days
• Didsbury
• Route 66
• You Won’t Like Me When I’m Angry – Part 1
• RAF College Cranwell, 1981–1982: Initial Officer Training
• Early Days
• The Next Stage
• Exercises
• Graduation – 20 May 1982
• RAF Hereford – June–September 1982
• RAF Brize Norton – 1982–1983
• RAF Sealand – 1983–1985
• RAF Odiham – 1985–1987
• RAF Recruiting – Ipswich and Southend 1987–1988
• RAF North Luffenham – The Road to Berlin
• Postscript
• RAF Gatow (26 SU)
• The Innocent
• Exploring Forbidden Territory
• Sights in Berlin
• The Lighter Side – Life in the Officers’ Mess
• RAF Waddington – 1993–1994
• RAF Thatcham – 1994–1995
• The Move to Russia
• First Duties – VE Day 50th Anniversary
• Excursions
• Stalingrad
• Breaking News
• Diana Ross and the BTR-90
• A Risky Encounter
• Banya
• Dacha Parties
• Encounter on the Embankment
• Playing Chicken
• Road Rage
• The Hungry Duck
• Building the Embassy
• Convoys
• The Volga Hotel
• Apartment Block Bombings
• (S)Hot Dogs
• Builders
• The Great Embassy Fire
• Cable Guy
• The Abseilers – Mission Improbable?
• Long Pig
• Laser Sight
• Honey Trap
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
• A Face in the Water
• Merry Christmas – Or Not!
• Vodka in an Iced Flower Jacket
• You Won’t Like Me When I’m Angry – Part 2
• You Won’t Like Me When I’m Angry – Part 3
• Another Honey Trap?
• Retirement
• Armed Forces Art Society (AFAS)
• Epilogue