Still a widely read indictment of the brutal Ceausescu era, where the few danced on tables paid for by the backbreaking labour of the many, the continued appeal of 'Red Horizons', a tabloid-friendly tell all by former foreign intelligence chief Ion Mihai Pacepa, is almost indicative of its author's charmed life.

Defecting in July 1978 after six years as the dictator's chief security advisor and deputy head of his propaganda-spewing spy network, Ion Mihai Pacepa glossed over his own role at the top of one of the most repressive regime's in 20th Century Europe and instead wrote a populist exposé, recognised on its 1988 publication by the New York Times' David Binder as semi-fabrication by the “happy hooker of the spy trade.” A compelling read – one of the benefits of not letting facts get in the way of narrative – its recollections of Ceausescu's inner circle, their brutality and excess (of which Pacepa's role is never really acknowledged), are gripping, but its reading of international affairs, Cold War politics and Eastern Bloc intelligence gathering are absurd semi-fantasies, since discredited by US intelligence agencies who noted that Pacepa frequently changed his story to chime in with more recent reports.

The CIA no longer take him seriously, (saying of one of his texts, "Pacepa doesn’t connect the dots, he adds new ones."), but the ludicrous pomposity with regards to the role played by Romania in the career of Yassir Arafat (who apparently hadn't even considered the idea of American imperialism until the KGB suggested it!), amongst other delusions, remains core to 'Red Horizons' and its mouthwatering compilation of homophobic fascination, thinly veiled racism and outlandish conspiracy.

Fittingly for a man who once counted disinformation as his job description, Ceausescu's former spymaster has made it the heart of his career in the 'free world', having spent the last decade dancing like a circus bear for the American right – penning increasingly fantastical columns for various hawkish journals that seek to create an absurd, paranoid narrative of evil forces inspired by the Soviet Union and arrayed against the blameless United States. Highlights include his claims that Saddam Hussein's non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction were spirited away by Vladimir Putin, and bile spitting polemic about how John Kerry's rhetoric owed a debt to the Kremlin.

The fact to embellishment ratio has since grown so great that Pacepa is widely derided in Romania as a "snake oil salesman", spicing up the same old stories for the Western media. 'Red Horizons', a blend of sensationalist half-truths, is where it all began.

No stranger to architectural folly, Nicolae Ceausescu bulldozed the magic out of 'little Paris' to construct an egotistical, North Korea-style monument to hardline Stalinism. Now Bucharest is gearing up to add the region's largest cathedral to its overflowing CV, alongside the world's second largest public building (Ceausescu's Palace of the People, second to the Pentagon), the largest hotel and the largest shopping mall in South East Europe.

Construction of the Cathedral of the Redeemer is due to begin this year and wrap up in 2013, it'll cost 400 million euros, most of which comes from a much criticised government loan, and at 120 metres high, it'll dwarf the current tallest – Bosnia and Herzegovina's Church of St Peter and St Paul in Mostar – by just shy of thirteen metres.

Journalist Laurentiu Mihu complained to Balkan Insight, “This project is too much extravagant and a new cathedral is not a priority for Romania. Instead, the Church should do something real for the redemption and development of society by putting these enormous sums into a huge nationwide social project."

Bucharest passed the point of no return a considerable time ago and the sheer scale and crassness of the Communist-era reconstruction is undoubtedly part of its appeal, nevertheless with existing Orthodox churches and historic buildings crying out for a bit of love amid the smog and bustle, the Cathedral of the Redeemer is going to meet with little enthusiasm from travellers.