Agents of Influence: How the KGB Subverted Western Democracies

’A gripping story filled with remarkable revelations.’ Tom Bower, author of Revenge

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

’A gripping story filled with remarkable revelations.’ Tom Bower, author of Revenge

Agents 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.

Mark Hollingsworth is a journalist, historian and author of ten books, notably Londongrad, Saudi Babylon, an acclaimed study of the MI5, and biographies of Mark Thatcher and Tim Bell. He worked for Granada TV’s award-winning World In Action documentary series for five years and also writes regularly for The Times, Mail on Sunday, Spectator, Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.