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1 1 (January 3, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/goverwi0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Russia's Foreign Intelligence Services January 3, 2025 Russia has an extensive foreign intelligence system composed of several overlapping agencies that compete for bureaucratic, political, and often economic influence within the Russian government. Russia's foreign intelligence agencies play a key role in advising and influencing Russia's leadership, as well as in implementing its foreign policy. Congress has previously imposed sanctions on Russia's foreign intelligence agencies, and some in Congress continue to express concern about these agencies' activities. Members of Congress may be interested in assessing the structure of Russia's foreign intelligence services and the continued challenges they pose to U.S. and allied interests. U.S. and Aled nte gence Concerns Over the last decade, Russia's foreign intelligence services have been linked to election interference, assassinations, cyber operations, espionage, and sabotage operations globally. In May 2024 testimony before Congress, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines stated that, Russia remains the most active foreign threat to our elections. The Russian government's goals in such influence operations tend to include eroding trust in U.S. democratic institutions, exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States, and degrading Western support to Ukraine. U.S. and allied intelligence agencies report an increase in Russian intelligence operations since 2022, described by the head of a UK service as a staggering rise. In response, the U.S. and allied governments have expelled suspected Russian spies, uncovered espionage operations, pursued criminal indictments, and sanctioned the agencies and their leadership for their aggressive and reckless activities. Evolution and Current Structure of Russia's Intellience Services After the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, its Committee of State Security (KGB) was broken up into several smaller organizations. The First Chief Directorate in charge of foreign intelligence, considered an elite unit within the KGB, was renamed the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and established as Russia's primary civilian intelligence agency. Many of the KGB's domestic and counterintelligence missions were divided among several agencies and eventually consolidated into the Federal Security Service (FSB), which eventually gained a foreign intelligence mission. The Main Directorate of the General Staff (GU), which was separate from the KGB, is Russia's defense intelligence agency and is responsible for collecting military intelligence as well as for overseeing spetsnaz (special light infantry forces) and proxy forces. As a former KGB officer and head of the FSB, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to place special importance on the roles and activities of Russia's foreign intelligence agencies. Russia's personalist system of government contributes to competition for favor and access to key policymakers among the services. This system also arguably contributes to a lack of coordination among the services and may encourage duplication of effort- including through similar or overlapping operations and areas of responsibility. Some observers assess that Russia's intelligence agencies shape and mold intelligence to confirm and support policymakers' views rather than to inform and advise. Security Council The Security Council (SB) is the key deliberative and formulative body advising the Russian President on security and intelligence policies. The SB consists of the heads of Russia's defense and security agencies. While formally part of the presidential administration, the Security Council retains a level of independence. It is unclear how much of that independence is formal or due to the status of the SB's leadership; it is currently headed by former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who replaced longtime SB head Nikolai Patrushev in May 2024. Analysts note that the SB's primary functions appear to be conducted by its professional staff, the secretariat. The secretariat arguably has a key role in shaping and managing Russian security policy by channeling reporting to senior government officials and coordinating intelligence operations. In some ways, it is comparable to the U.S. National Security Council, but in other ways it is distinct. According to a leading observer, the SB is not a decision- making body but rather the coordinator and enforcer of policies across the Russian intelligence community. Foreign Intelligence Service As Russia's primary civilian foreign intelligence agency, the SVR is tasked with collecting the full spectrum of political, economic, and scientific intelligence. The SVR operates both official and unofficial intelligence operations. Official operations consist of human intelligence operations conducted out of Russian embassies and consulates under diplomatic cover. The SVR also uses nonofficial cover agents who operate without diplomatic immunity and with no apparent connection to Russia or the Russian government. SVR operations reportedly have been affected by mass expulsions of officers from Russian embassies in the United States and Europe in response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In addition to its traditional human intelligence missions, the SVR conducts cyber, disinformation, and influence

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