Source: Radio New Zealand
Kit Bennetts examines negatives of photos from his time as a spy working for the CIA Jess Charlton
Listen now to The Agency, a new podcast detailing the story of a Kiwi spy who was close to the Sutch case before spending six years in cover for the CIA
Kit Bennetts, who was born and raised in Masterton, was recruited in Wellington by the CIA Chief of Station at the US Embassy in 1979. At the time he was working for New Zealand’s SIS.
He shared details of his work in hours of interviews for a new podcast, The Agency, released by RNZ and Bird of Paradise.
In the podcast, Bennetts reveals how he worked on behalf of the CIA “belly-to-belly” with a senior Soviet official, trying to funnel “dead-end technology” into the system of America’s Cold War rival.
See photos and video from the series below.
Kit Bennetts photographed while on assignment in the Pacific Supplied
Bennetts poses in front of an airforce jet, part of the development of his backstory Supplied
Bennetts was supposed to do a two-year ‘exchange’ with the CIA, but it instead lasted six-and-a-half years Supplied
Bennetts photographed outside the White House Supplied
A Matryoshka doll set that was gifted to Bennetts by a Soviet official he was worked against during the Cold War RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Bennetts photographed at the RNZ studios in February 2026 Jess Charlton
Dimitri Razgovorov running from his meeting with Bill Sutch, who Bennetts had tracked in clandestine meetings with Soviets, in 1974. NZSIS
Bill Sutch was acquitted of charges of breaching the Official Secrets Act but a lot of evidence of his connections with the Soviet Union has since emerged. Public Domain
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
