Soviet spymaster Yuri Drozdov dies at 91
The Foreign Intelligence Service, a KGB successor agency known under its Russian acronym SVR, didn't give the cause of Drozdov's death or any other specifics in a terse statement.
In 1962, he took part in the exchange of Soviet undercover agent Rudolf Abel, convicted in the U.S., for downed American spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers.
The story was made into Steven Spielberg's blockbuster "Bridge of Spies" in 2015 as well as the Soviet movie "The Shield and the Sword," a 1968 classic that Russian President Vladimir Putin once said inspired him to join the KGB.