Agents of Influence: How the KGB Subverted Western Democracies
Tuesday 3 October SOLD OUT!
Castle Hill Baptist Church
4.30pm
There’s no such thing as a former KGB man
Agents of Influence reveals the secret history of an intelligence agency out of control, accountable to no one but itself and intent on subverting Western politics on a near-inconceivable scale. In 1985, 1,300 KGB officers were stationed in the USA. The FBI only had 350 counter-intelligence officers. Since the early days of the Cold War, the KGB seduced parliamentarians and diplomats, infiltrated the highest echelons of the Civil Service, and planted fake news in papers across the world.
More disturbingly, it has never stopped. Putin is a KGB man through and through. Journalist Mark Hollingsworth reveals how disinformation, kompromat and secret surveillance continue to play key roles in Russia’s war with Ukraine. It seems frighteningly easy to destabilise Western democracy.
In Conversation with Festival Director, Aaron Manning.