Aleft-wing British journalist and author of several books on the liberation movements of Latin America, Gott, the son of a World War II general, was identified by Oleg Gordievsky as a long-standing agent of influence run by the London rezidentura.
Then working as the literary editor of the Guardian, Gott acknowledged that he had held clandestine meetings with KGB officers in London and Vienna and had failed to declare payments from them. He resigned from his newspaper but continues to contribute articles periodically.