SVR

The foreign intelligence service of the Russian Federation since 1991

Overview

The SVR inherited the KGB First Chief Directorate when the Soviet Union ended, operating from the Yasenevo complex in Moscow. It runs human intelligence abroad through official cover officers in embassies and through networks of illegals operating under false identities. The 2010 FBI investigation that rolled up a ring of Russian illegals in the United States, exchanged later that year in Vienna, displayed its long term deep cover methods. Its publicly known alumni include Vladimir Putin, who served in Dresden during the 1980s.