The Reds ‘spied on Hawking’
STEPHEN Hawking was convinced Soviet spies tried to steal his ground-breaking science theories for their own use.
The professor also feared he was being targeted by the KGB as he was pals with one of the architects of the Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal.
Prof Hawking – who died in March aged 76 – became convinced he was being spied on during a visit to Moscow.
His paranoia was revealed by his former wife as the Salisbury nerve agent scandal continued to unfold.
On his way to see scientists in the Russian capital, Prof Hawking was told he must behave as if his hotel room was bugged and make sure he and his travelling companions kept quiet about their theories and personal opinions.
Prof Hawking believed the entire first floor of the hotel where he stayed was being used by surveillance agents with listening devices – as it was bypassed by the hotel lift, sealed off from guests and strictly out of bounds.
His first wife Jane Wilde revealed her fears that they were being targeted by Soviet spies when they visited Moscow together at the height of the Cold War.
Jane – married for 30 years to Hawking – revealed they stayed at the five-star Rossiya Hotel in Moscow in the early 1970s.
She said: “On the flight between Warsaw and Moscow, we were warned to behave as though our hotel room were bugged, not just for our safety, but for all the colleagues we would meet.”
Jane, now 73, also suspected an elderly Russian scientist was the Soviet government’s “insider” as his behaviour and the way he would disappear and reappear was “mysteriously unpredictable”.