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; 33 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 (SVR) Russian: Служба внешней разведки Российской Федерации, romanized: Sluzhba Vneshney razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii, IPA: [ˈsluʐbə ˈvnʲɛʂnʲɪj rɐˈzvʲɛtkʲɪ] is the civilian foreign intelligence agency of Russia. The SVR succeeded the First Chief Directorate 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. A small service, it works collaboratively with its military intelligence counterpart, the Main Intelligence Directorate, better known as the GRU. As of 1997, the GRU reportedly deployed six times as many spies in foreign countries as the SVR.^[3] The SVR is authorized to negotiate intelligence-sharing arrangements with foreign governments, particularly on matters of counterterrorism, and is tasked with providing finished intelligence products to the Russian president.^[4]

Any information pertaining to specific identities of staff employees (officers) of the SVR is considered a state secret; since September 2018, the same protection has applied to non-staff personnel (i.e., agents, informants, or cooptees.)^[5]