&gt; how devoid of credibility the West&#x27;s intelligence agencies have become. I know it has been known for a while since Snowden<p>It&#x27;s older than that. I remember 40 years ago it was possible that rather obvious facts (such as &quot;you need to queue a long time to get basic consumer goods in the USRR&quot;) were dismissed simply because they could be labeled &quot;CIA propaganda&quot;. In my country we even had an initiative for a &quot;peace law&quot;, whose purpose was to outlaw discussion that might pose negative light on the Soviet empire, as any such discussion was obviously only there because it is spouted by the discredited Western intelligence agencies.