Yuri Ivanovich Modin (8 November 1922 in Suzdal[1] – 2007 in Moscow[2][3]) was the KGB controller for the "Cambridge Five" from 1948 to 1951, during which Donald Duart Maclean was said to have passed atomic secrets to the Soviets.
[4]: 270 In his 1994 book, Modin revealed that in the early days Moscow did not really trust the Cambridge Five, British agents who were passing secret information to the Soviet Union.
The KGB had difficulty believing that the men would have access to top secret documents; they were particularly suspicious of Philby, wondering how he could have become an agent given his Communist past.
'[4]: 104 The words changed and inserted by Headline were a fabrication, according to Modin, who pointed out that Cairncross, to his knowledge, had never been in contact with any member of the group.
The Guardian journalist Richard Norton-Taylor rang Modin to check on this and found him angry that the false claims, changes and fraud on the British (and later US) public, had been made without his being consulted.