‘I owe everything to the man at the Soviet mission’: A former South African activist trained by the USSR to fight apartheid credits her Moscow training with saving her life

Sue Dobson is now 59 years old and living a quiet life as a retired person in Britain, but her youth as a white woman in apartheid-era South Africa was turbulent. In her 20s, she joined the African National Congress (ANC) and infiltrated the white minority government. In these endeavors, Dobson had help from the USSR: seven months of military and intelligence training in Moscow in 1986. With these skills, she returned to South Africa as an undercover agent and inserted herself into the pro-government media, eventually finding a job at the Bureau of Information, where she collected evidence of propaganda campaigns to undermine the nation's opposition and destabilize neighboring states. When Dobson's cover was blown, it was a Soviet official who saved her by helping her escape to London, where she ultimately won political asylum. Meduza is the second news outlet to share Dobson's story, which first appeared earlier this week at The Observer. Her life will serve as the basis for an upcoming film, titled "Burned." Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/09/03/i-owe-everything-to-the-man-at-the-soviet-mission