Robert Eksuzyan

I remember travelling to Odessa with Robert in 1985 to report on a European football tie between Real Madrid and Chernomorets.

We stayed up very late after the game drinking whisky and Robert talked to me about how in the early 1950s the mere name alone of Lavrenti Beria was enough to send shudders of raw fear down his spine and those of his friends. The disclosure of Beria's death was a cause for massive celebration.

Robert also was the Reuters man who first spotted the Tass announcement of Gorbachev’s appointment as CPSU general secretary in March 1985. He happened to be making himself a cup of strong tea in the kitchen of the office at Sad Sam – and the Russian-language Tass machine was kept in the kitchen. I saw him running into the main office room waving the piece of Tass copy and shouting: "Eto Gorbachev! Eto Gorbachev!" ■