Compared with US intelligence, KGB was much larger and more involved in Soviet society, and its graduates make up a much larger proportion of Russian political

Compared with US intelligence, KGB was much larger and more involved in Soviet society, and its graduates make up a much larger proportion of Russian political elites. Its political influence could easily be underrated by someone from the US. And the Russian government is comparatively even more involved in the private sector. So when you move from discussing West to discussing East, you may need to re-tune your feeling for when something is a paranoid conspiracy theory or not.