Gerhardt was a South African national who spied for the Soviet Union for 20 years before his position was compromised by the Farewell Dossier.

Shlykov was arrested when he travelled to Zurich under the false name Nikolaev Mikhail Vasilyevich to meet with Gerhardt's wife, Ruth, who acted as a courier.

After his release from prison in 1986, he started the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, an influential think tank that provides advice to the Kremlin on security issues.

Shlykov argued with his superiors that the Soviet Union was basing its military and economic policies on faulty assumptions, inherited from the Joseph Stalin era.

He pointed out that the Western powers opted out of the World War II-era approach and were actively developing "smart" weapons in order to counter the Soviet preponderance in manpower and classical materiel.