Murray Seeger, who spent 14 years with the LA Times from 1967 to 1981, passed away on Monday from pneumonia at the age of 82. Seeger was perhaps best known locally for helming the Times‘ Moscow bureau from 1972 to 1974. He famously got the last interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn before the dissident author was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974.

According to the Times‘ obit, Seeger endeared himself to the Soviet Union so much, a KGB colonel once called him “the most disliked American correspondent since Harrison Salisbury.”

After leaving the Times, Seeger went on to become the information director for the AFL-CIO. They could certainly use the likes of him these days.

RIP.