KGB’S SUCCESSOR PURSUES CIS INTEGRATION.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 1 Issue: 160

Asked by an interviewer to define his agency’s mission "in the new conditions," Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) director Yevgeny Primakov replied that "facilitating the integration trends among the CIS countries" is a "primary task" of the SVR. Primakov did not explain how his agency pursues that task. He told an official meeting the next day that "active cooperation among intelligence services of CIS countries is essential for settling the conflicts in the former USSR." (12) Given the total disproportion of forces, cooperation can only mean subordination in this context. The suggestion also contradicts previous official assurances for public use that Russia does not conduct intelligence operations on the territories of CIS countries. The SVR is one of the KGB’s direct successors. Primakov was speaking on both occasions in the context of marking the 78th anniversary of the Cheka, the original Bolshevik predecessor of the KGB, still considered by successor agencies in post-communist Russia as their birthday.

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