Warning: after you read this post, it will automatically self destruct.
OK, not really, and neither will famous KGB spy Oleg Kalugin’s book “Spy Master: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West,” which he discussed at the International Spy Museum Thursday.
The museum’s executive director remarked they’ve run programs like “Sexpionage” and “The History of the Martini” (with a tasting), yet this was the most packed he’d ever seen it. Kalugin was the youngest KGB general in history, was the head of their counterintelligence operations and even went undercover in the United States, posing as a reporter and student, before becoming a reformist and leaving Russia for good.
He gave his advice on spy recruitment, saying you should never go after a strong, powerful person, but lonely people who are unappreciated and underpaid. Then, you compliment them and befriend them. He remembered recruiting a man from the National Security Agency whom he sought out because he was “a man so unappetizing he had no girls, and no boys.” He called him handsome and complimented his eyes. “You don’t chose who you get to recruit,” he said.
He also said that a trick the Soviets used was to recruit young. He even recruited a recent high school graduate who ended up being powerful in politics. According to Kalugin, the CIA never did this because they were always looking for the “Starbucks type.”
Kalugin told the audience, “If you feel safe and free, I’ll tell you a story of assassinations,” and proceeded to tell insider info on the deaths of Russian spies. Kalugin will be back at the museum Nov. 18 for “Murder in Moscow” — a talk on infamous spy assassinations.
