Luke Harding greeted the Hay audience with a warning "Trump is not to be underestimated. He is a master of storytelling, creating and confecting his own reality and it has fallen to investigative journalists to hold our nerve and push for the truth”.
Speaking to Nik Gowing about Russia’s alarming influence in the White House, Harding said “We can’t say that Trump was recruited by the KGB [in the 1980s] but we can say he was talent-spotted as someone that might be useful in the future”.
Harding explained that during this time Russia was on the lookout for upwardly mobile people in the US - particularly those showing characteristics of vanity, poor analytical skills, unfaithfulness and with potential for a future in politics - to influence.
Standard KGB technical operations often involved using attractive women, so-called swallows, to lure their targets into compromising situations which could potentially be used later in blackmail. "Trump pandered to Russia’s primitive flattery like bees to honey" said Harding.
When Gowing asked “Is there a [Trump] sex tape?”, Harding replied “Multiple. I haven’t seen them…but maybe Putin has. The important thing is that Trump knows Putin has it. It won’t be released. It’s psychology leverage. At no point during his Presidency will Trump criticise Putin. ”
Harding will be speaking on Russia again at 8.30pm this evening alongside Jane Bradley, Misha Glenny and Oliver Bullough in event 72: Kleptoscope 1: The Real McMafia.