This ex-KGB agent’s account of how to destabilise a nation is eerily relevant

A 35-year-old video has resurfaced and is doing the rounds on Twitter after people realised it was oddly prescient.

The recording is of former KGB operative Yuri Bezmenov explaining Russian influence and "ideological subversion".

He says:

Only about 15 per cent of time money and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85 per cent is what we call ideological subversion or active measures ... or psychological warfare.

What it basically means is to change the perception of reality for every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community and their countries.

You cannot change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information; even if you prove that white is white and black is black.

He goes on to explain that the next stage is destabilisation.

It takes only between two and five years to destabilise a nation. What matters is essentials: economy, foreign relations, defence systems.

The following stage is "crisis".

It may only take up to six weeks to bring a country to the verge of a crisis.

After the crisis, "with a violent change in power, structure and economy" you have the "period of normalisation" which may last indefinitely.

Writer Carol Cadwalladr tweeted out the video too, and it's since been shared by thousands.

Most people agreed it remained disturbingly relevant.

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