Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)

Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation

Служба внешней разведки Российской Федерации
Emblem of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation
Flag of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation
Agency overview
Formed	December 1991; 32 years ago (1991-12)
Preceding agency	KGB First Chief Directorate
Jurisdiction	Russia
Headquarters	Yasenevo, Moscow, Russia 55°35′02″N 37°31′01″E / 55.584°N 37.517°E / 55.584; 37.517
Employees	Classified; estimated 13,000 in 2010 [1]
Annual budget	Classified
Minister responsible	Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
Agency executive	Sergey Naryshkin, Director
Child agency	Institute of Intelligence Information
Website	svr.gov.ru
Footnotes
Building details
Headquarters of the SVR in Moscow

The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (Russian: Служба внешней разведки Российской Федерации, tr. Sluzhba vneshney razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii, IPA: [ˈsluʐbə ˈvnʲɛʂnʲɪj rɐˈzvʲɛtkʲɪ]) or SVR RF (Russian: СВР РФ) is Russia's external intelligence agency, focusing mainly on civilian affairs. The SVR RF succeeded the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB in December 1991.^[2] The SVR has its headquarters in the Yasenevo District of Moscow with its director reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation.

Unlike the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the SVR is tasked with intelligence and espionage activities outside the Russian Federation. It works together with the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (Russian: Главное разведывательное управление, tr. Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye, IPA: [ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə], GRU), its military-joint affairs espionage counterpart, which reportedly deployed six times as many spies in foreign countries as the SVR in 1997.^[3] The SVR is also authorized to negotiate anti-terrorist cooperation and intelligence-sharing arrangements with foreign intelligence agencies, and provides analysis and dissemination of intelligence to the Russian president.^[4]

Any information pertaining to specific identities of staff employees (officers) of the SVR is legally classified as a state secret; since September 2018, the same applies to non-staff personnel, i.e. informers and recruited agents.^[5]