The most famous intelligence officers in the world. Russia's most secret service Military intelligence services of the world

If we talk today about what the hierarchy of the world's intelligence services looks like, the top five intelligence services in the world, then this rating can be built as follows: in first place is the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), today it is the world's leading intelligence service, the potential of which is supported by enormous funding.

Today, the CIA, first of all, has a fairly large intelligence apparatus; each of the American embassies operating in any country in the world, under the roof of the embassy, ​​has a CIA station, which includes a fairly qualified apparatus of operational and technical employees. In the CIA, one can also note the presence of a very large and solid information and analytical apparatus, because any information that comes to intelligence needs careful verification in classification. And that the conclusions and proposals that can be implemented on the basis of one or another intelligence report form the basis of those certificates that are prepared for the country’s top leadership.

I would also like to note that every morning the Director of the CIA reports to the President of the United States of America the so-called intelligence report, which notes everything that is happening and has happened in the world over the past day from the point of view of US interests and making certain decisions in order to influence certain processes. The CIA is still engaged in covert operations; we remember the color revolutions in the post-Soviet space and it is no secret who directed them. And to whom did the leaders of certain revolutions come for consultation. Naturally, the center and brain are the American embassies in these countries.

In second place we can safely put the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Of course, if we compare the capabilities that the KGB and GRU had during the Soviet Union, they were larger-scale and more global. Today, the range and purpose of the tasks facing our military and political intelligence are changing, but we still certainly must monitor all potential threats that may arise far from the Russian borders, but then receive any materialization in the form of military or political threats for our country.

Unfortunately, it should be noted that the second half of the nineties and the beginning of the 2000s were not entirely successful for our intelligence, primarily for the SVR. This was due to the fact that in the central apparatus of the SVR and in a number of Western stations that we had in the USA and Great Britain, there were obviously “moles” operating - this is the name given to intelligence people who, at the same time, being career intelligence officers, worked for foreign intelligence services. We have lost a number of brilliant agent positions both in the central apparatus of the CIA and, of course, in the apparatus of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - this is the body that deals within the United States, including counterintelligence, here we need to name our best agent Robert Hansan, when he was exposed, put on trial and given life imprisonment. And naturally, his exposure is a betrayal in our own ranks. But the SVR was able to lick its wounds and overcome this unfavorable syndrome that developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And there were massive facts of betrayal of our intelligence officers to the side of Western intelligence services. Today we can state that, just like the GRU, the SVR is quite effectively implementing the tasks that the Kremlin sets for it, both in the field of undercover penetration into the territories of a number of Western states, and in terms of the fight against international terrorism.

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In the modern world, given the tense political situation, the role of special intelligence services has greatly increased. “James Bonds” of the 21st century not only perform tasks familiar to intelligence officers, but also actively work in the information space. Today, most countries in the world have their own intelligence services, but only a few of them are truly distinguished by their high professional level and enormous capabilities.

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR)

The SVR is the successor to the former 1st Main Directorate (PGU) of the KGB of the USSR, which was responsible for foreign political intelligence. Very little is known about the activities of the SVR - this is perhaps the most secret Russian intelligence service. But, judging by the reaction of the West, modern Russian intelligence officers are working at a high level. Even during the Cold War, Washington did not accuse Moscow of influencing American elections.

Soldiers of the special unit of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service “Zaslon” and Russian journalist Dmitry Kiselev in Syria

US Central Intelligence Agency

The CIA is the most popular intelligence service in the world. What is not attributed to American agents! Meanwhile, many CIA operations can indeed be called very successful, and this is not only the usual recruitment of agents and theft of classified information, but also such large-scale actions as “color revolutions” in the post-Soviet space, in Arab countries. The Ukrainian Maidan is sometimes also called a CIA special operation. At the very least, there is no doubt that American foreign intelligence played a very important role in organizing the coup in Kyiv and the subsequent anti-Russian turn in Ukraine.

Mossad

Israeli intelligence is considered one of the most professional and tough intelligence services in the world. Its most famous actions are the liquidation of many leaders of Arab radical organizations, Iranian nuclear scientists, and the identification of Nazi war criminals. It is known that now only about a thousand career employees serve in the Mossad, but Israeli intelligence officers have entangled almost the entire world in a network of agents. And this brings results - for example, intelligence officers eliminated all the terrorists who captured and killed Israeli athletes during the Olympics in Munich in 1972.

The British Foreign Office's secret intelligence service, MI6, is one of the oldest modern intelligence services. It was created back in 1909 and went through the First and Second World Wars, numerous conflicts in the colonies, and the Cold War between the West and the USSR.

British intelligence building MI6 in London

ISI Pakistan

The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence was created during the Cold War under the direct patronage of the US CIA. However, then the intelligence service turned into a powerful independent structure, which today has the largest number of agents. In the area of ​​interest are the Muslim countries of Central Asia and the Middle East, India, and European countries. The Pakistani intelligence service acts harshly and aggressively, mercilessly punishing the enemies of the Pakistani state and organizing all kinds of provocations against countries that are potential opponents. During the Soviet participation in the war in Afghanistan, the ISI maintained close ties with the mujahideen.

Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China

The MGB of the People's Republic of China is a large and cumbersome structure similar to the Soviet KGB, responsible for both foreign intelligence and counterintelligence and political security. The Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China includes operational departments that are in charge of foreign political intelligence, scientific, technical and economic intelligence, intelligence in disputed territories (Taiwan), intelligence from the territory of the Middle Kingdom itself, etc.

Iranian Ministry of Information and National Security

In Iran, as in China, the functions of the intelligence services are concentrated in a single structure responsible for intelligence, counterintelligence, and the fight against terrorism. Iranian agents are especially active in nearby countries of the Middle East, especially in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan - that is, in those countries where large Shiite communities live and Tehran has strategic interests.

MIT - National Intelligence Organization of Turkey

The Turkish intelligence agency combines the functions of foreign intelligence and internal secret political police. One of the main tasks of MIT is the fight against the enemies of the Turkish state, which include leftist and Kurdish organizations, and some religious fundamentalist movements. In addition, MIT is actively working in countries with a significant proportion of the Turkic population and in nearby states - Syria and Iraq. However, the intelligence service also had well-known failures - for example, MIT was exposed in supplying weapons to extremists in Syria.

BND - German Federal Intelligence Service

The emergence of its own foreign intelligence service (Bundesnachrichtendienst) in post-war West Germany was a result of the country's inclusion in the Cold War. An echo of Germany's defeat in World War II is the ban on organizing any subversive activities in other states.

DGSE - Directorate General for External Security of France

In France, foreign political intelligence is combined with military intelligence and together they form part of the Directorate General of External Security, subordinate to the French Ministry of Defense. French intelligence officers include civilian personnel (civil servants) and officers and sergeants of the French armed forces. Among the most important areas are reconnaissance of the forces of a potential enemy in Europe, operations in former French colonies, and the fight against terrorism.

"In the fight against the Russian Cosa Nostra"

Behind the most high-profile criminal cases of recent times is a team of FSB officers led by General Sergei Korolev, who until recently headed the department’s Internal Security Directorate (USB) of the FSB, and in early July received the Economic Security Service (SEB) of the FSB under his command, said
RBC.

In the early 2000s, Korolev served in the third department of the Economic Security Service of the FSB, which oversaw law enforcement agencies. In those days they looked at it practically as a pension, Fontanka wrote the other day.

A few years later, news reached St. Petersburg - Korolev became an adviser to the Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov, while overseeing the Main Directorate of the General Staff, which is more often called the GRU.

Soon, unexpectedly for everyone, Korolev became the head of the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the FSB of Russia. In the police environment, security officers are called watchmen. It turns out he was watching the watchmen.

Under Korolev, the Sixth Service became one of the most significant units in the CSS. According to RBC's interlocutor, close to the USB, it was created in 2008, it includes only about 35 people. The service is headed by Ivan Tkachev, writes RBC.

Of course, before detaining governors and other high-ranking officials, the head of the service coordinates the position with FSB Director Bortnikov. And with such questions you need to approach the president. The resolution should be the same everywhere: “To work.” Signature, date. Which, in fact, means - in Lefortovo, notes Fontanka.

The Economic Security Service is one of the key units in the FSB, explains retired FSB Major General, member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy Alexander Mikhailov. According to him, in the USSR, in the context of the confrontation with the West, the main role was played by employees directly involved in counterintelligence, but in recent years the importance of the SEB has increased noticeably.

The structure of the FSB SEB is not officially disclosed. As Novaya Gazeta wrote, the Economic Security Service includes seven departments: for counterintelligence support of the credit and financial system (directorate “K”), industrial enterprises, transport, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Justice, for the fight against smuggling and drug trafficking, organizational and analytical management and administrative service.

From 2004 to 2008, the SEB was headed by Alexander Bortnikov, who moved from this post directly to the post of director of the FSB. Yakovlev became Bortnikov's successor in the leadership of the SEB. On July 8, Vladimir Putin appointed a new head of one of the key divisions of the FSB - the Economic Security Service. It was Sergei Korolev.

The most notorious criminal cases of the Sixth Service

May 8, 2015. Police Lieutenant General Denis Sugrobov, who headed the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs until February 2014, was detained. Let us remind you that he was arrested on charges of organizing a criminal community, provoking a bribe and exceeding official powers. His deputy Boris Kolesnikov was also arrested and soon committed suicide.

September 2015. The head of the Komi Republic, Vyacheslav Gaizer, was arrested on charges of fraud and organizing a criminal community. There are 19 people involved in the Gaiser case, including ex-State Duma deputy from Komi Evgeny Samoilov.

March 4, 2016. Governor Alexander Khoroshavin was detained on Sakhalin and is charged with accepting a bribe in the amount of $6 million.

March 14, 2016. Deputy Minister of Culture Grigory Pirumov was detained in Rostov. The total amount of damage charged to him and other defendants is more than 100 million rubles. In addition to Pirumov, the director of the St. Petersburg company BaltStroy, Dmitry Sergeev, and other responsible persons were arrested in the so-called “restorer case.”

End of March 2016. “St. Petersburg businessman No. 1,” billionaire Dmitry Mikhalchenko, was arrested. He has been charged with smuggling. According to investigators, elite alcohol was purchased at European auctions and supplied to Russia under the guise of construction sealant.

As RBC notes, Mikhalchenko’s case is not the only case of smuggling that the Internal Security Service is dealing with. At the end of 2015, management became interested in the case of ULS Global. Among the persons involved in the investigation was the head of the 7th Department of Directorate “K” (it deals with counterintelligence support in the credit and financial sphere) of the FSB Economic Security Service, Vadim Uvarov.

The connection with Mikhalchenko affected the career of one of the country’s most senior security officials, FSO director Evgeniy Murov.

Murov worked for several years with Mikhalchenko’s business partner Nikolai Negodov in the regional department of the FSB. Murov, Mikhalchenko, Negodov lived in the same village on the shores of Lake Valdai in the Novgorod region.

At the end of May, by decision of the president, Murov was dismissed. The head of state's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, explained Murov's dismissal by his advanced age, RBC recalls.

June 24, 2016. In a Moscow restaurant, Nikita Belykh, the governor of the Kirov region, former chairman of the Union of Right Forces, was caught red-handed while receiving 400 thousand euros.

July 13, 2016. The court authorized the arrest of Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy), who was charged with extortion and organizing a criminal community.

On the night of July 18-19. The deputy head of the Main Investigative Directorate for Moscow, Denis Nikandrov, the head of the Main Directorate for Interdepartmental Cooperation and Internal Security of the Investigative Committee, Mikhail Maksimenko, and his deputy, head of the Internal Security Department, Alexander Lamonov, were detained.

July 26, 2016. Investigators found about 10 million rubles and hundreds of thousands of dollars and euros during a search in the house of the head of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation Andrei Belyaninov. Searches were also carried out in the offices of Belyaninov’s deputies, Andrei Strukov and Ruslan Davydov. During the searches, items and documents relevant to the investigation of the criminal case of alcohol smuggling were seized.

As it became known today, July 28, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order on the resignation of the head of the Federal Customs Service Andrei Belyaninov.

Let us note, following Fontanka, that Khoroshavin, Gaizer, Belykh are the governor’s power. Sugrobov is a policewoman. Pirumov - ministerial. Mikhalchenko is capitalist. Citizen Shakro is a mafia member. Today we reached the Investigative Committee and the Federal Customs Service.

Reshuffles in the FSB

In June, the head of department “K” (part of the SEB structure), Viktor Voronin, the immediate superior of Vadim Uvarov, lost his post.

The CSS had information that Voronin was connected with Mikhalchenko, two interlocutors close to the CSS management told RBC. Voronin’s resignation occurred as a result of an internal audit carried out at the SEB by employees of the Internal Security Service.

Soon after the first audit, the Department of Internal Security began a second audit. Upon its completion, the head of the SEB, Yuri Yakovlev, resigned.

A few weeks before Yakovlev’s resignation, Korolev became the main contender for his place, interlocutors in the special service told RBC. It was he who was appointed head of the SEB on July 8.

Now reshuffles are continuing in the FSB, but already at the level of mid-level operatives of the Economic Security Service. According to one of RBC’s interlocutors in the FSB, close to the leadership of the special service, the scale of the dismissals is still difficult to assess, but it is already known that about ten people will lose their posts, about half of whom will be additionally checked in connection with possible violations of the law.

Another RBC interlocutor in the intelligence service said that at least one person from among the SEB employees left the country. According to another RBC source, one of the operatives of the Economic Security Service was fired on July 8, the day when the decree appointing a new head of the Economic Security Service was signed.

Below is a list of the ten best intelligence agencies in the world. We also recommend that you read the ranking of the best special forces units in the world.

10 German Federal Intelligence Service, BND

9 Directorate General for External Security, DGSE (France)

8 Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China

7 Australian Secret Intelligence Service, ASIS

6 Research and Analysis Department, RAW (India)

5 Intelligence and Special Tasks Agency, Mossad (Israel)

4 Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, FSB

3 British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6

2 Central Intelligence Agency, CIA (USA)

1 Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI

Intelligence agencies are considered the main pillar of security of any country. But everything they do is done behind the scenes, so the results of their work are usually not visible to the uninitiated.

Here 10 Best Intelligence Agencies in the World 2015, according to the foreign online publication ExpertSecurityTips, dedicated to issues of security, personal protection and self-defense.

10. Intelligence and Special Tasks Agency (MOSAD), Israel

This organization collects and studies intelligence, participates in the fight against terrorism, and eliminates Israel's enemies around the world. The agency's director reports on his activities directly to the Prime Minister of Israel.

9. Ministry of State Security (MSS), China

Responsible for counterintelligence, foreign intelligence and political security. Also, employees of this ministry obtain foreign advanced technologies and control dissidents and students located outside the PRC.

8. Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS)

The agency's main role is to collect information and transmit it to various intelligence agencies in the country. Among other secret agencies around the world, Australian intelligence is known for its excellent technological advancement.

7. Directorate General for External Security (DGSE), France

In 1982, he replaced the external documentation and counterintelligence service. The department employs up to 5,000 people. The successes of French intelligence are not well known to the general public, but the intelligence service claims to have prevented 15 terrorist attacks in France.

6. Research and Analysis Division (RAW), India

The agency's main focus is on the neighbor and main enemy of the country of Kama Sutra and Bollywood - Pakistan. It is responsible for disinformation activities, sabotage and espionage against Pakistan and other countries. Even the Indian Parliament is not aware of the budget, structure, composition and staffing of the intelligence agency.

5. Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Germany

Regularly conducts espionage operations since 1956. Focuses on collecting and analyzing classified information, detecting potential threats, and informing the German government about terrorist criminal activities.

4. Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia

The ranking of the best intelligence services in the world would be incomplete without the successor to the USSR State Security Committee. The FSB was formed in 1995 and is engaged not only in intelligence and counterintelligence, but also in the fight against terrorism, countering drug smuggling, ensuring information security and increasing the country's defense security.

3. Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), UK

The existence of James Bond's place of work was not officially recognized by the British government until 1994. The agency works in cooperation with the Mossad and the CIA in order to eliminate any potential threat to England. This intelligence service is known for its deadly and cold-blooded agents, who, before carrying out the operation, did not stand out from among the respectable ordinary people for a long time.

2. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), USA

Officially, the CIA, founded in 1947, is a civilian organization. Its tasks include: obtaining and analyzing information about foreigners, controlling and coordinating intelligence collection outside the United States through a network of agents, maintaining national security and various functions relating to intelligence activities.

1. Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)

The main intelligence and counterintelligence agency of Pakistan, founded in 1948, immediately after the partition of India and Pakistan. Maintains contacts with other intelligence services of various countries, including the American CIA and British MI6. It is at the head of the top 10 best intelligence services in the world for its high efficiency, especially in operations in Afghanistan, Kashmir and during the Kargil war. He does not hesitate to use any means to achieve his goals. The world's most powerful intelligence agency has long been accused of using terrorist groups and militants to wage proxy wars against its neighbors.