SVR: Russian Federation
The Russian Federation Foreign Intelligence Service know as the SVR (Russian: Служба внешней разведки Российской Федерации) is the Russian Federation’s external intelligence agency. The SVR succeeded the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB as from Dec 1991 with its headquarters in the Yasenevo District of Moscow.
The FSB (Federal Security Service) is the SVR’s counterparts tasked with the intelligence and espionage activities with Russia itself. The SVR works hand-in-hand with the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (Russian: Главное разведывательное управление) the GRU. Since Sept 2018, any information pertaining to specific identities of SVR staff and non-staff personnel (i.e. informers and recruited agents), is legally classified as a state secret.
Boris Yeltsin (Sept 1999) admitted that the SVR played a greater role in Russian foreign policy than the Foreign Ministry itself. This highlights the role that the SVR has playing in the Ukraine invasion of Feb 2022.
SVR agents are commonly legal migrants, many of which are scientists and other professionals that infiltrate key industries, companies and Government departments. The SVR officer who defected to Britain in 1996 reported that thousands of Russian agents and intelligence officers are deployed around the world, some of them ‘illegals’ who live under deep cover. These illegals are likely the ‘handlers’ and intermediaries that control and relay Intel between the source and the SVR itself. This allows for an element of deniability.
The most dangerous agents are those within. Between 1994 and 2001, American citizens working as sources spies for Russian agencies included those of Aldrich Hazen Ames, Harold James Nicholson, Earl Edwin Pitts, Robert Philip Hanssen and George Trofimoff. These individuals were considered double agents because they were working for US intelligence whilst providing information to Russia.
State funded assassinations is also in the scope of the SVR. Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi are allegedly SVR officers; however, the SVR has denied involvement in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. An SVR spokesperson queried over Litvinenko remarked ‘May God give him health’.
Litvinenko is a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and the KGB. He has spoken critically about the Russian Government corruptionand sought asylum in the UK, where he remained vocal against the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Litvinenko is a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and the KGB. He has spoken critically about the Russian Government corruption and sought asylum in the UK, where he remained vocal against the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The public inquiry revealed from forensic reports, a ‘radiation schedule’, phone records, CCTV footage, evidence from 62 witnesses and ‘considerable’ secret intelligence material that all the evidence points towards Kovtun and Lugovoi being SVR agents conducting an assassination on foreign soil. The weapon of choice was Polonium-210. This is rather distinct and not something readily available, with a distinct signature and radioactive trail that says this was a state funded operation – note that Radioactive Trail Across Europe.
The Polonium was clearly handled ignorant of its properties, as radiation signatures were found in hotel rooms, on plane seats, at restaurant tables, and even on a shisha pipe smoked by Lugovoi on a Soho terrace. More sinisterly Lugovoi encouraged his eight-year-old son, to shake Litvinenko’s hand after he had drunk the polonium laden green tea.
It is for all the above mentioned reasons that effective forensic processes are as important as ‘keep out’ security systems, as this allows you to identify weaknesses in your overall security.
Lessons were learnt that P-210 and similar radioactive substances (unless handled with extreme sensitivity), leaves a very distinct trail. The question you are likely asking yourself is why not a run of the mill stabbing or shooting? It is a distinct and directed message to all those who work against the regime.
On the 4th of March 2018 Salisbury saw a suspicious case of attempted murder. The target was Sergei Skripal. Skripal was a former Russian Military intelligence officer who became a double agent for MI6 during the 1990s and early 2000. In Dec 2004 his cover was compromised and arrested by the FSB and later tried convicted and sentenced to prison for 13 years for high treason. Skrpial settled in the UK after the Illegals Programme spy swap.
His daughter Yulia Skripal (a Russian Citizen), was tracked and used to surface Skripal when she travelled to the England to visit her farther.
According to UK sources and the Organisation
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), they were poisoned by means of a Novichok
nerve agent. Both Sergei and Yulia Skripal spent several weeks in hospital in critical condition, before being discharged.
Novichok is one of a group of nerve agents, some of which are binary chemical weapons. These agents were developed at the GosNIIOKhT state chemical research institute by the Soviet Union and Russia between 1971 – 93. It is also understood that Iran has production capabilities.
Binary agents contain the toxic agent in its active state as chemical precursors that are significantly less toxic than the weapon itself. This improves safety in storing, transporting, and disposal.
In November 2019, the OPCW (the executive body for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)), added the Novichok agents to ‘list of controlled substances’ in response to the 2018 Salisbury poisonings.
Other incidences of Novichok poisonings include that of the 30th of June 2018, in Amesbury, where two British nationals, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess (civilians not linked to any agency), were admitted to Salisbury District Hospital only 8 miles (13 km) away from the Skripal case, four months before.
Rowley, found a perfume bottle in a charity shop bin. He unknowingly gave it to Sturgess as a gift – God rest her soul.
On the 20th of August 2020, Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was also exposed to Novichok in the Russian city of Tomsk, Serbia.
The notable lesson to taken is that any procedure must be planned and followed from begging to end, regardless if the mission appears satisfactorily completed.
Remember, that no matter how seriously you take this…it is just a game, but don’t get caught just in case!