Robert Maxwell, with one of his papers, was found dead in 1991

Robert Maxwell attempted to negotiate a $20 billion British government loan to prop up the ailing Soviet Union as his newspaper empire was collapsing.

The owner of the Daily Mirror visited Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street in March 1990 claiming that he was on a mission to help Mikhail Gorbachev continue his reforms.

The revelation that the publishing tycoon and former Labour MP was a go-between for the Soviet leadership may fuel speculation that was a KGB spy.

Charles Powell, Thatcher’s private secretary, noted that Maxwell claimed to be acting after meeting one of the Soviet leader’s closest advisers. “It was quite clear that perestroika was in far worse trouble than even we had imagined,” Mr Powell recorded in a letter released today.

“The most