The “Blurriness” of Boundaries between Activity Spheres of Intelligence Agencies as an Amplifier of Power in Russia

Abstract

This article examines the foreign intelligence activities of three Russian spy agencies. Using open sources, it studies the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and the Fifth Service of the Federal Security Service. It considers to what extent their respective roles are clearly delineated in legal terms and concludes that these roles overlap to a considerable degree. The “blurriness” of Russian intelligence is an indicator of bureaucratic concentration and amplification of power.

Notes

1 “Federal Law No. 5-FZ dated January 10, 1996: On Foreign Intelligence,” Presidential Executive Office of Russia, http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/bank/8732/page/1 (accessed 19 October 2022).

2 “Federal Law No. 40-FZ dated April 03, 1995: On the Federal Security Service,” Presidential Executive Office of Russia, http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/bank/7696 (accessed 19 October 2022).

3 “Federal Law No. 5-FZ dated January 10, 1996.”

4 Ibid.

5 “Federal Law No. 40-FZ dated April 03, 1995.”

6 J. Michael Waller, Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today (Boulder, Co: Westview Press, 1994), p. 24.

7 Ibid.

8 “Federal Law No. 5-FZ dated January 10, 1996.”

9 Gasan Huseynov, Karta Nashey Rodiny: Ideologema Mezhdu Slovom i Telom [Map of Our Motherland: An Ideologeme between the Word and the Body] (Moscow: United Humanitarian Publishing House, 2005), pp. 15–16.

10 Nikolai N. Krotov and Michail N. Krotov, The Life in the Times of Flourish: The Nineties. 1992. April. Vol. 1 (Moscow: KMK Scientific Press, 2019), p. 55.

11 Timofey Borisov and Igor Yelkov, “SVR Director Sergey Lebedev: Foreign Intelligence Services Are Following Our Technical Projects,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta, last modified 20 December 2005, https://lenta.ru/articles/2005/12/20/svr/ (accessed 20 October 2022).

12 There were minor exceptions to this rule related to the so-called intelligence from the internal territories.

13 “About the Israeli Security Agency,” The Israeli Security Agency, https://www.shabak.gov.il/en/about/about/ (accessed 7 June 2023).

14 Shay Hershkovitz, “Israel’s Intelligence Wars,” War on the Rocks, last modified 2 March 2016, https://warontherocks.com/2016/03/israels-intelligence-wars/ (accessed 7 June 2023).

15 Alexei Valeriev, “Sergey Beseda: Mezhdunarodnoye Sotrudnichestvo Dolzhno Byt’ Ravnopravnym i Vzaimovygodnym” [Sergey Beseda: International Cooperation Must Be Equal and Mutually Beneficial]. FSB: Za I Protiv, Vol. 4, No. 7 (2009), p. 16. http://osfsb.ru/upload/iblock/ebc/ebc6896a9ab71abbcc67d2b31f2e58a9.pdf

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21 Valeriev, “International Cooperation Must Be Equal and Mutually Beneficial,” p. 16.

22 “Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services of the CIS Member States (CHSA),” Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States, last modified 5 January 2012, https://cis.minsk.by/page/13826 (accessed 20 October 2022).

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24 Ibid.

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26 Ibid.

27 Internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Georgia.

28 Internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Georgia.

29 “Draft Law No. 233018-6.”

30 Ibid.

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35 Ibid.

36 “The SBU Exposed the Assistant of the People’s Deputy of Ukraine for Treason” (video), Security Service of Ukraine, last modified 5 July 2022, https://ssu.gov.ua/novyny/sbu-vykryla-na-derzhavnii-zradi-pomichnyka-narodnoho-deputata-ukrainy-video (accessed 20 October 2022).

37 Ibid.

38 “Trial Judgement in the Criminal Case No. 204/7112/22, Dated September 9, 2022, Dnipro,” Ukraine, https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/106166337?fbclid=IwAR3Gikgy1QQ_3YPgCQ-r8HLaS_DhkRbVBwL_dgMwbaVc0Lh7xq1G3Y1XZQg (accessed 9 November 2022).

39 “Structure and Administration of the Foreign Intelligence Service,” Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, http://svr.gov.ru/svr_today/struktur.htm (accessed 20 October 2022).

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid.

42 “The Head of the SVR Shared His Memories of Vartanyan’s Intelligence Officers,” RIA Novosti, Federal State Unitary Enterprise MIA Rossiya Segodnya, last modified 9 May 2020, https://ria.ru/20200509/1571230036.html (accessed 20 October 2022).

43 “Naryshkin Spoke about the Fate of Soviet Intelligence Officers Serving a Sentence in the United States,” RIA Novosti, Federal State Unitary Enterprise MIA Rossiya Segodnya, last modified 3 November 2020, https://ria.ru/20201103/agenty-1582810189.html (accessed 20 October 2022).

44 “Mikhail Anatolyevich Vasenkov,” Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, http://www.svr.gov.ru/history/person/vasenkov.htm (accessed 20 October 2022).

45 “Ten Alleged Secret Agents Arrested in the United States,” Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice, last modified 28 June 2010, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ten-alleged-secret-agents-arrested-united-states (accessed 20 October 2022).

46 Sergey Naryshkin, “Nauchno-Tekhnicheskaya Razvedka Yavlyayetsya Odnim iz Prioritetnykh Napravleniy Deyatel’nosti SVR Rossii” [Scientific and Technical Intelligence Is One of the Priorities of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service]. Natsionalna Oborona [National Defence], No. 10 (2020), https://2009-2020.oborona.ru/includes/periodics/maintheme/2020/1025/151830322/detail.shtml, p. 68.

47 Ibid.; Vladimir S. Antonov, “Osnovnye Napravleniya Deyatelnosti” [Main Areas of Activity], in S nih nachinalas’ razvedka [Intelligence Started with Them] (Moscow: Veche, 2014).

48 Dmitrii P. Prokhorov, Razvedka ot Stalina do Putina [Intelligence from Stalin to Putin] (Saint Petersburg: Publishing House “Neva,” 2005), pp. 389–390.

49 “EU Restrictive Measures against Russia over Ukraine (since 2014),” Council of the European Union, last modified 20 October 2022, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/sanctions/restrictive-measures-against-russia-over-ukraine/#sanctions (accessed 20 October 2022); “Russia—Country Commercial Guide, Sanctions Framework,” International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, last modified 21 July 2022, https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/russia-sanctions-framework (accessed 20 October 2022).

50 “Vladimir Putin Congratulated Employees and Veterans of the Foreign Intelligence Service on the Centenary of Illegal Intelligence,” Presidential Executive Office of Russia, last modified 30 June 2022, http://www.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/speeches/68790 (accessed 20 October 2022).

51 “Naryshkin Named Areas of Cooperation between SVR and RAS,” RIA Novosti, Federal State Unitary Enterprise MIA Rossiya Segodnya, last modified 3 March 2020, https://ria.ru/20190528/1555068835.html (accessed 20 October 2022).

52 “The SVR Said about the Plans of the United States and Poland to Establish Control of Warsaw over Part of Ukraine,” ITAR-TASS News Agency, last modified 28 April 2022, https://tass.ru/politika/14504823 (accessed 20 October 2022).

53 “The Statement of the Head of the SVR about Polish ‘Peacekeepers’ in the West of Ukraine is Based on Intelligence,” ITAR-TASS News Agency, last modified 29 April 2022, https://tass.ru/politika/14517449 (accessed 20 October 2022).

54 “Naryshkin Said that Soon His Comment on Poland’s Plans for Ukraine Will Be Released,” ITAR-TASS News Agency, last modified 20 June 2022, https://tass.ru/politika/14972763 (accessed 20 October 2022).

55 “‘Poland Began to Work Out Scenarios for the Dismemberment of Ukraine, Naryshkin Said,’” RIA Novosti, Federal State Unitary Enterprise MIA Rossiya Segodnya, last modified 30 June 2022, https://ria.ru/20220630/polsha-1799283719.html (accessed 20 October 2022).

56 “Naryshkin Called Dangerous for Europe Poland’s Plans to Restore Control in Western Ukraine,” ITAR-TASS News Agency, last modified 7 July 2022, https://tass.ru/politika/15154329 (accessed 20 October 2022).

57 “Naryshkin: Poland Nervously Accepted the Publication of Its Plans to Dismember Ukraine,” ITAR-TASS News Agency, last modified 12 July 2022, https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/15196327 (accessed 20 October 2022).

58 “Poland Continues to ‘Master’ Ukraine,” Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, last modified 8 August 2022, http://svr.gov.ru/smi/2022/08/polsha-prodolzhaet-osvaivat-ukrainu.htm (accessed 20 October 2022).

59 “Order of the Government of the Russian Federation No.430-r Dated March 5, 2022: List of Foreign States and Territories Committing Unfriendly Acts against the Russian Federation, Russian Legal Entities and Individuals,” http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001202203070001 (accessed 19 October 2022).

60 “The Statute of the Assossiation ‘Rosiiskoe Istoricheskoe Obshchestvo’ dated June 23, 2020” (Moscow: Rosiiskoe Istoricheskoe Obshchestvo), https://historyrussia.org/images/Doki/UstavRIO_2020.pdf (accessed 19 October 2022).

61 “Founders and Members of the Russian Historical Society,” Rosiiskoe Istoricheskoe Obshchestvo [Russian Historical Society], https://historyrussia.org/ob-obshchestve/nashi-partnery.html (accessed 19 October 2022).

62 “Sergey Naryshkin Held a Press Conference on the Plans for the Work of RIO in 2020,” Rosiiskoe Istoricheskoe Obshchestvo, YouTube, last modified 28 January 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OTraZzMHig&list=PLLjLTQ2qRC2ZCklTv7SNK8zuntFQMxak1&index=272 (accessed 19 October 2022).

63 “Rossotrudnichestvo is a Leading Russian Agency, Whose Main Mission Is to Strengthen Russia’s Humanitarian Influence in the World,” Rossotrudnichestvo, Wayback Machine Internet Archive, last modified 1 September 2021, http://web.archive.org/web/20220425212752/https://rwp.agency/agency/ (accessed 20 October 2022).

64 Vasiliy N. Mitrokhin, KGB Lexicon: The Soviet Intelligence Officer’s Handbook (Abingdon: Frank Cass, 2002), p. 375.

65 TASS Encyclopedia, TASS Russian news agency, “Khalifa Haftar,” ITAR-TASS News Agency, last modified September 2022, https://tass.ru/encyclopedia/person/haftar-halifa (accessed 20 October 2022).

66 Yuri Gavrilov, “Alexander Shlyakhturov: Nothing Is Impossible for Russian Special Forces on the Battlefield,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta; Federal State Budgetary Institution “Editorial Office of Rossiyskaya Gazeta,” last modified 2 November 2011, https://rg.ru/2011/11/02/shlyahturov.html (accessed 20 October 2022).

67 Ibid.

68 Ibid.

69 Speech by Chief Main Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, Admiral Igor Kostyukov (proclaimed at the Plenary Session 3 Section 1 Regional Aspects of Global Security: Africa, the Middle East and Latin America at the X Moscow Conference on International Security, Moscow, 16 August 16, 2022), https://disk.yandex.ru/i/G81IqMGxoCLU9g (accessed 20 October 2022).

70 Speech by Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, Vice Admiral Igor Kostyukov (proclaimed at the VII Moscow Conference on International Security, Moscow, 5 April 2018), https://mil.ru/mcis/news/more.htm?id=12169992@cmsArticle (accessed 20 October 2022).

71 “Counterintelligence of the SSU Detained an Agent of Russian Military Intelligence: He Reported on Ukrainian Forces and Assets in the Area of the JFO” (video), Security Service of Ukraine, last modified 12 August 2021, https://ssu.gov.ua/novyny/kontrrozvidka-sbu-zatrymala-ahenta-rosiiskoi-voiennoi-rozvidky-zvituvav-pro-ukrainski-syly-i-zasoby-u-raioni-provedennia-oos (accessed 20 October 2022).

72 “The SBU Exposed the GRU Agent Network of the Russian Federation, which Included a Member of Parliament of Ukraine” (video), Security Service of Ukraine, last modified 24 June 2022, https://ssu.gov.ua/novyny/sbu-vykryla-ahenturnu-merezhu-hru-rf-do-yakoi-vkhodyv-narodnyi-deputat-ukrainy-video (accessed 20 October 2022).

73 Robert S. Mueller, “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” Vol. 1 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2019), https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/download (accessed 20 October 2022), p. 36.

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75 “2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Russia” (Washington, DC: Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 2022), https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/russia/ (accessed 7 June 2023).

76 Ibid.

77 “Federal Law No. 5-FZ dated January 10, 1996.”

78 Fernando G. De Los Fayos, Lucio Mastrosimone, Ophélie Allard, and Angelina Yurkova, “The Political Opposition in Russia,” Russia and Eastern Partnership Unit & Foreign Affairs Committee Unit, Directorate General for External Policies of the European Union, last modified November 2020, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/plmrep/COMMITTEES/AFET/DV/2020/11-27/Russian_opposition_background_note_2020_final_EN.pdf (accessed 7 June 2022).

79 “Federal Law No. 5-FZ dated January 10, 1996.”

80 James Alt and Douglass North (Eds.), The Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 4.

81 Ibid.

82 Carter v. Russia, no. 20914/07, §34, 21 September 2021, https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-211972.

83 Robert Owen, “Report into the Death of Alexander Litvinenko” (The National Archives, London, 2016), https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20160613090324/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/report (accessed 9 November 2022), p. 246.

84 Carter v. Russia, no. 20914/07, §165, 21 September 2021, https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-211972

85 “Salisbury Attack—Suspects Identified,” Counter Terrorism Policing UK, last modified 22 November 2018, https://www.counterterrorism.police.uk/suspectsidentified/ (accessed 19 October 2022).

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87 Daniel Treisman, “The Reverse Evolution of a Spin Dictatorship: Putin Goes to War,” RE: RUSSIA, last modified 10 October 2022, https://re-russia.net/en/expertise/026/ (accessed 7 June 2023).

88 The Structure of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Presidential Executive Office of Russia, last modified 25 October 2021, http://www.kremlin.ru/structure/security-council/members (accessed 7 June 2023).

89 Ibid.

90 “Viktor Cherkesov, Director of the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation: The Fashion for the KGB?” JSC Publishing House Komsomolskaya Pravda, last modified 28 December 2004, https://www.kp.ru/daily/23433/35559/ (accessed 19 October 2022).

91 “Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia Nikolai Patrushev: If We ‘Break Down’ and Leave the Caucasus, the Collapse of the Country Will Begin,” JSC Publishing House Komsomolskaya Pravda, last modified 20 December 2000, https://www.kp.ru/daily/22458/7028/ (accessed 19 October 2022).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vadym Chernysh

Vadym Chernysh is the Head of the Governing Council of the Center for Security Studies, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, National Technical University of Ukraine. He holds a Ph.D. in law. From 2016 until 2019, he was Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories, and before that he was a negotiator in the Minsk process for the peaceful settlement of the situation in the East of Ukraine (Trilateral Contact Group). The author can be contacted at [email protected].