“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 and it seems frighteningly easy to destabilise Western democracy today, as will become apparent from this discussion.

The Henry Jackson Society is delighted to present Mark Hollingworth’s most recent book, “Agents of Influence – How the KGB Subverted Western Democracies”, where the author and an expert panel will be discussing the history of Soviet and Russian intelligence, and how disinformation, kompromat and secret surveillance play key roles in Russia’s global activity today.

This photo is a property of Mark Holligsworth

Mark Hollingsworth is a journalist, historian and author of ten books, notably “Londongrad: From Russia with Cash”, “Saudi Babylon”, an acclaimed study of MI5 and a biography of Mark Thatcher. He worked for Granada TV’s award-winning World in Action series for five years and writes regularly for The Times, Mail on Sunday, Spectator, Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.

This photo is a property of LSE

Tomila Lankina presently helps coordinate the informal LSE Taskforce that she set up together with other LSE colleagues to support students and scholars following Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.

She has worked on democracy and authoritarianism, mass protests and historical drivers of human capital and political regime change in Russia and other countries; she has also analysed the propaganda and disinformation campaigns in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in Ukraine. Her latest research is on social structure and inequality. A short video on her latest book, “The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia”, which challenges the narratives of the Bolshevik Revolution as a great social watershed, can be found here.

This photo is a property of https://members.parliament.uk/member/4681/portrait

Bob Seely is the Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight. He sits on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Dr Seely writes academically and journalistically on foreign affairs as well as more generally on non-conventional and new forms of conflict. Prior to his election in June 2017, Dr Seely served on the Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and ISIS campaigns as a member of the Armed Forces. From 1990 to 1994, Dr Seely lived in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states. His academic and foreign affairs writing is available online at: https://kcl.academia.edu/RobertSeely. Dr Seely has written one of the few peer-reviewed definitions of Contemporary Russian Conflict Strategy available in the West and holds a PhD in Russian military strategy.

Marc Sidwell is Director of Research at The Henry Jackson Society. He has worked as a senior editor for the Telegraph and City A.M. and as publisher for the New Statesman. Marc has also written regularly for publications including Telegraph, The Critic, National Review and City A.M. He is a Senior Fellow at the New Culture Forum, and a graduate of Oxford and Warwick.

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EVENT SUMMARY

The Henry Jackson Society was pleased to host the launch of Mark Hollingsworth’s latest book, Agents of Influence: How the KGB Subverted Western Democracies & Lessons for Today. The panel, chaired by HJS’ Director of Research Marc Sidwell, consisted of Christopher Steele, Dr Bob Seely MP, and Professor Tomila Lankina, alongside the author himself. Hollingsworth described how his book aims to draw parallels between the operations conducted by Russian intelligence services during the Cold War and those in the contemporary context following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He emphasised the importance of the security services for Putin as a political weapon that goes beyond simply protecting national security. Christopher Steele discussed the link between ‘agents of influence’ and the spread of disinformation, and refers to Russia as “an intelligence service with a state”. He stated that those who are wittingly involved with the Russian state today are primarily motivated by money, in contrast to the ideological motivations of the Cold War. Dr Bob Seely MP delved into the complex nature of political warfare and ‘active measures’ conducted by Russian intelligence services. He agreed with Christopher Steele in regards to the vulnerabilities of the British political system to foreign influence, and advocated for tougher protections in this field. Finally, Professor Tomila Lankina gave a short presentation on the efforts of Russian state media to manipulate narratives according to the Kremlin’s design, such as the Euromaidan protests and the shooting down of flight MH17.