>https://espionagehistoryarchive.com/2019/12/20/robert-maxwell-the-kgb/
Leonid Brezhnev immediately invited Maxwell to Moscow. The conversation took place one-on-one in Russian, without interpreters or protocol. Much brought them together: past combat, a love for cars, hunting and drinking. Robert became the General Secretary’s friend, and they met regularly. Western intelligence analysts impatiently awaited reports on their discussions. CIA, MI6 and Mossad achieved their goal: their man had gained entry into the Kremlin’s halls of power.
And so began a line of publications of “dear Leonid Ilyich’s” works throughout the world. Brezhnev gloried in the praises his books received. After Brezhnev’s death, Captain Bob developed contacts with new general secretaries – Andropov, Chernenko and Gorbachev. And he remained the Kremlin’s most important propagandist of the Soviet system abroad. The Central Committee’s agitprop generously paid for Maxwell’s services from state coffers. It stands to note that Lubyanka correctly thought that Western intelligence services were using Maxwell as a disinformation channel to the Soviet state. But they couldn’t do anything. Maxwell, after all, had reached a level inaccessible to Lubyanka. He was in contact with the elite of the nomenklatura, untouchable even to the Chekists.[2]
By the middle of the 1980s, Moscow had come up against the global challenge posed by the United States. CIA Director Casey developed a new plan for fighting the USSR. A special role was set aside for Maxwell’s empire – to roll out a campaign of support for Gorbachev’s ruinous policy. The very author of Perestroika was satisfied working with Maxwell. The pro-Gorbachev Pravda and Moskovskie Novosti began publication in English in the West. Raisa Gorbacheva’s Our Heritage could be found next to popular glossy magazines. All this was secured by Maxwell. World popular opinion took “Gorby’s” side. But in his home country, the explosive potential of the people’s dissatisfaction was building.