Agents of Influence : How the KGB Subverted Western Democracies

by Hollingsworth, Mark | Russia
Published 04/04/2024 by Oneworld Publications in the United Kingdom
Paperback | 320 pages
128 x 198 x 29mm | 296g

There’s no such thing as a former KGB man...

'A gripping story filled with remarkable revelations.' Tom Bower, author of RevengeAgents of Influence reveals the secret history of an intelligence agency gone 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 never stopped. Putin is a KGB man through and through. Journalist Mark Hollingworth 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.