SVR

Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation

SVR Headquarters at Yasenevo, Moscow in 2008. (Alex Saveliev, CC2.0)

The Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) (Russian: Служба внешней разведки Российской Федерации Sluzhba vneshney razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is part of the Russian national-security system focused on foreign threats (ref 1). It is directly subordinate to the Russian president (ref 1).

The SVR was established on 18 December 1991, with the renaming of the Central Intelligence Service (TsRS), which itself had been created out of the the First Chief Directorate of the KGB two months earlier (ref 2).