A film based on the novel was released in 1990 starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard, and directed by Fred Schepisi.

Several months later in Moscow, a woman named Katya seeks Barley out at an audio fair, hoping to convince him to publish a manuscript for her friend Yakov which details Soviet nuclear capabilities and atomic secrets.

Their Russia House is more than interested in it and ask Barley to contact Yakov with a list of verifying questions to determine the document's authenticity.

The CIA and MI6 decide one final meeting is needed to verify the authenticity of the data, but Yakov is suddenly "hospitalized" due to purported exhaustion.

A contemporary review for Publishers Weekly said, "Le Carré's Russia is funny and touching by turns but always convincing, and the love affair between Barley and Katya, subtly understated, is by far the warmest the author has created.

"[2] In a 1989 book review by The New York Times Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote "there remains a murky complexity to Mr. le Carré's prose that isn't justified by the somewhat simplistic inevitability of his plot.

The love affair that ends up undermining Barley's patriotism seems forced in its detail and leaves a void of credibility at the heart of the story.