Intelligence

Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR)
Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki

Yasenevo 11 Kolpachny
Moscow, 0101000
Moscow phone Number = 095 923 62 13

The Soviet Union's Committee for State Security dissolved along with the USSR in late 1991. However, most of its assets and activities have continued through several separate organizations. The Foreign Intelligence Service [SVR] was the first element of the KGB to establish a separate identity [as the Central Intelligence Service - Centralnaya Sluzhbza Razvedkyin [CSR] in October 1991, incorporating most of the foreign operations, intelligence-gathering and intelligence analysis activities of the KGB First Chief Directorate.

In September 1991, Gorbachev named Yevgeni Primakov to the post of first deputy chairman of the USSR Committee of State Security (KGB) and chief of the KGB's First Directorate. Primakov was confirmed by Russian president Boris Yeltsin as the head of the SVR, which replaced the CSR in December 1991. With the emergence from the KGB of the SVR as an independent agency, Primakov reported directly to President Boris Yeltsin.

In the early 1990s, defectors revealed a great many Russian secrets, forcing the SVR to reorganize their methods of gathering scientific and technical intelligence.

In February 1996 Andrei Kozyrev was replaced as Russia's minister of foreign affairs by Primakov. The appointment came followed the December parliamentary elections in which the Communists garnered the largest number of votes and prepared to dominate the Duma in tandem with the nationalists.

Colonel-General Vyacheslav Trubnilov became the new director of the SVR in January 1996, and served as the 23rd Director of foreign intelligence since its establishment in 1920. Vyacheslav Trubnilov graduated in 1967 with a specialization in Asian countries from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Higher School of the KGB and started to work for the Foreign Intelligence. He worked at the First Main Directorate (Foreign Intelligence) of the KGB.

He spent his entire career in the KGB, living for 15 years in South Asia, working under the cover of journalist. In 1971-1977 and in 1984-1990 he worked in India and Bangladesh and was head of fixed-post Soviet agents in India and Bangladesh. In January 1992 he became the first deputy of the Director of Foreign Intelligence Service. He was the Director of Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation until May 2000.

From June 2000 to July 2004 he worked as a First Deputy of Foreign Minister of Russia and as a special representative of the Russian President in the CIS countries. In 2004 he was appointed to the post of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to India and served in this capacity till 2009. Vyacheslav Trubnikov is a member of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and an associated member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Sergei Nikolayevich Lebedev headed the SVR from May 2000. Russia had to provide firm resistance to international terrorism and resolve complex tasks in the area of non-proliferation of nuclear components, combat illegal arms trafficking and act rapidly and systematically to monitor external threats to our country’s stability. The SVR was at the forefront of this work over these last years and played an important part in guaranteeing Russia’s security and protecting Russia's foreign policy interests.

Sergei Nikolayevich Lebedev was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States’ Executive Committee on October 7 this year in Dushanbe. This was by common agreement among the CIS heads of state after lengthy discussions (on the other candidates, not on Sergei Nikolayevich’s candidature).

On October 19, 2007, President Vladimir Putin personally introduced Mikhail Fradkov, the new director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Fradkov’s appointment as director of the SVR highlighted the important place of the intelligence service among Russia’s state bodies, Putin said. The President thanked Sergei Lebedev, the previous director, for his work and said he was sure that Lebedev’s great experience, exceptional hardworking ability and persistence will help him to concentrate efforts on strengthening the integration processes in the CIS.

Mikhail Yefimovich Fradkov headed Russia’s Government for more than three years. He had many years of responsible work abroad behind him. Since 1973, he worked in the economic advisor to the Soviet Embassy in India. At the end of trips abroad in 1975, for more than 15 years he worked in senior positions in the USSR State Committee for Foreign Economic Relations System (GKES) and the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the USSR. Since 1991 he was Senior Advisor Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN in Geneva. Since October, 1992 he served as Deputy Minister, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation. From April 1997 to March 1998 he was the Minister. In May 1999 he was appointed Minister of Commerce of the Russian Federation. Since May 2000 - Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, was in charge of economic security. In March 2001, he headed the Federal Tax Police Service. In March 2003 he was appointed Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Union. March 5, 2004 he was approved as the Chairman of the Russian Government. On October 9, 2007 a presidential decree appointed Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Through his previous activities, Mikhail Yefimovich was familiar with the results of the SVR’s work and knows personally many of its senior officials. Mikhail Fradkov’s appointment as director of the SVR underscored the important place the intelligence service holds among Russia’s state bodies.

On October 19, 2007, President Vladimir Putin stated " ... the SVR is one of the most professional and effective services. It must continue to give Russia reliable protection against potential external threats. The fight against international terrorism remains one of its priorities. It is necessary to identify the terrorists’ channels of financing, plans for carrying out terrorist attacks, and the location of training bases for terrorists and mercenaries. This information will help Russia’s other special services to work more effectively.

You must also concentrate on helping to strengthen Russia’s industrial and defence potential. You are able to provide good and rapid evaluation of international and economic changes taking place and to calculate their consequences for Russia’s economy. And of course, you also need to be more active in helping to protect the interests of Russian companies abroad."

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) should be proactive by taking innovative steps and identify key tendencies of development of the international situation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said 05 October 2016. "Today the situation in the world makes special demands to the quality and effectiveness of the SVR work. It is necessary to be proactive, use innovative, unconventional decisions," Putin said. He also stressed the importance of identifying and analyzing "the whole spectrum of external threats, identifying key strategic trends in the development of the international situation, contributing to the strengthening of economic, technological and military potential of Russia. " "Of course the safety of our citizens should be under special control, especially in regions such as the Middle East, Africa, as well as in certain Central Asian countries," Putin said at a ceremony formally appointing Sergei Naryshkin to lead the SVR.