ShortList is supported by you, our amazing readers. When you click through the links on our site and make a purchase we may earn a commission. Learn more

The KGB Didn't Want David Cameron, But A Gay Couple Probably Did

The KGB Didn't Want David Cameron, But A Gay Couple Probably Did

The KGB Didn't Want David Cameron, But A Gay Couple Probably Did
31 July 2015

Either David Cameron has a severe case of exaggerating memories from his gap year shenanigans in the Soviet Union or the KGB has decided to do damage control in a curious way.

While most people come back from their 'gap yaaah' with an expanded mind ("I've seen things you wouldn't believe, man!") the PM seems to have well and truly gone through the looking glass on his trip, emerging convinced that the actual KGB tried to recruit him when he was 19. Because nothing says double agent like a fresh faced (and probably tweed wearing) Cameron.

Talking to BBC Desert Island Discs in 2006, the PM recalled his encounter on the beach resort of Yalta on the Black Sea:

“These two Russians who spoke perfect English sort of turned up on the beach, which was mainly reserved for foreign tourists.

 

They took us out to dinner and interrogated us in a friendly way about life in England and what we thought and politics.

 

We were obviously very careful and guarded in what we said but later when I got to university my politics tutor said that was definitely an attempt.”

A scoff and a “sure, Dave” (doubtlessly a similar reaction to that of his university peers who were hearing the story for the sixth time) would suffice.  

Instead, a Russian security analyst has claimed that the only thing David Cameron was being recruited for was a gay pick-up.

In an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper on Wednesday, Gennady Sokolov explained that the "KGB agents" who approached Cameron and his friend were in fact "black marketeers" who also happened to fancy "a closer look at a couple of nice English boys".

Almost as unbelievable as Cameron’s story, Sokolov also suggests that the now PM’s gap-yah was funded by MI6 and that the whole thing was made up as "wonderful propaganda move for the future prime minister of England".

In case you can’t get enough, there’s apparently an entire book being written on a conversation that probably lasted a couple of hours.

Whatever it was that actually happened it's probably safe to say that both parties probably left the dinner table disappointed.