Molly Hennessey-Fiske in the Raleigh News & Observer provides a blast from the past in The Russians are cunning:
RALEIGH -- The former Soviet general -- the spy, the turncoat -- came to town Wednesday to warn against his own.Sheesh, why did they bother? Out homegrown leftoids are perfectly capable of figuring out how to backstab the nation on their own.
"Don't feel that you now have a partner in Russia," Oleg Kalugin, 68, told the audience of about 90 at Raleigh's first International Spy Conference. " ... We have a long history of deception and subterfuge."
With that irresistible lure, Kalugin led the assembled -- a mix of conspiracy-prone retirees, veterans and students -- into the realm of cloaks and daggers in search of his true loyalty.
"Freed," as fellow speaker Nigel West said, "of the shackles of Soviet secrecy," Kalugin detailed his 32-year career in the KGB for the audience, most of whom paid between $250 and $300 each to attend the three-day conference. He still looks the part, with close-cropped hair and a simple khaki suit. His smooth, slavic inflection recalls the era when he spied against Americans on their own turf, recruited agents from anti-war and civil rights groups and churned out communist propaganda.
