The SVR

 

"The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (Russian: Слу́жба вне́шней разве́дки, tr. Sluzhba vneshney razvedki; IPA: [ˈsluʐbə ˈvnʲɛʂnʲɪj rɐˈzvʲɛtkʲɪ]) or SVR RF (Russian: СВР РФ) is Russia's external intelligence agency, mainly for civilian affairs. The military affairs espionage counterpart is the GRU. The SVR RF is the successor of the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB since December 1991.^[1] The headquarters of SVR are in the Yasenevo District of Moscow.

Unlike the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the SVR is responsible for intelligence and espionage activities outside the Russian Federation. It works in cooperation with the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (Russian: Гла́вное разве́дывательное управле́ние, tr. Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye; IPA: [ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə]) (GRU), which reportedly deployed six times as many spies in foreign countries as the SVR in 1997.^[2] The SVR is also authorized to negotiate anti-terrorist cooperation and intelligence-sharing arrangements with foreign intelligence agencies, and provides analysis and dissemination of intelligence to the Russian president. "  wiki

--------------

Why do you people keep prattling on about the FSB?  The GRU and the SVR are Russia's external intelligence services, not the FSB who are essentially cops and internal security people like the FBI.  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Service_(Russia)

Comments

[The Twisted Genius]

I think the all the talk of the FSB stems from the fact that many functions of the FAPSI (Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information), including most of FAPSI's internet related functions were transferred to the FSB in 2003. We figured the FSB got the lion's share of FAPSI resources and functions because the FSB was Putin's power base.

[turcopolier]

TTG
OK. Then the GRU must really be riding high. pl

[The Twisted Genius]

Yes, I would say they're shitting in tall cotton.

[Degringolade]

Colonel and TTG (Lt Co.?) (Colonel?):

Don't worry: Whenever we see an unfamiliar acronym, we just assume it is the Godless Rooski's and go from there.

As Mastger Sergeant York always told me: Don't sweat the small stuff, that is Officer's territory

[turcopolier]

Degringolade

IMO if you don't understand who the other side are in all their details, then you don't know shit, but then I'm not York. pl

[ked]

well, the buck's gotta covfefe somewhere.

[turcopolier]

ked

"covfefe?" pl

[turcopolier]

ttg

It would make some sense for them to do that since the internet is largely an internal security problem for them. pl

[The Twisted Genius]

pl,

It's a reference to a late night Trump tweet of a few months ago simply stating “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” That's all it said and there was no follow up tweet. The internet had a field day with it.

[BillWade]

For all their concerns (those Dems)about the nefarious Russians, one has to wonder why they let our military and border defenses slide during their tenure, just seems odd to me.

[turcopolier]

Bill Wade

IMO the Obamanites reckoned that history had ended and that the military was only needed as a bargaining tool in diplomacy. Border defenses? We haven't had any since the beginning of WW2 and then they were mostly intended for defense against the British. pl

[Aka]

Sir,
Probably because Putin was the head of FSB for one year period near his rice to power.

Also a fun fact is that Putin served mostly in the 1st Directorate (now SVR).

BTW, I think FSB does foreign intelligence on former soviet states. I remember reading somewhere that SVR is not allowed to do that due to some agreement.

[turcopolier]

Aka
That's right. I was involved as an expert witness in a court case involving Checnhaya and the Russian spooks involved were all FSB. My interaction with them was by teleconference. At the end of the first day they asked how I knew so much about various subjects. The second day they addressed me as "Gospodin Polkhovnik." (Citizen Colonel). I had not told them that. pl

[Allen Thomson]

I think I mentioned this some time ago, but the SVR HQ at Yasenevo (55.584 N, 37.518 E)has undergone considerable and continuing expansion in the past ten years. Good times, I suppose.

[georgeg]

You are very uninformed.....

[turcopolier]

georgeg

If you wish to tell James that he is ignorant, IMO you should explain WHY he is "uninformed."

[FourthAndLong]

Another country heard from — Matt Taibbi at Rollingstone:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-what-does-russiagate-look-like-to-russians-w493462

A couple of excerpts:

“For journalists like me who have backgrounds either working or living in Russia, the new Red Scare has been an ongoing freakout. A lot of veteran Russia reporters who may have disagreed with each other over other issues in the past now find themselves in like-minded bewilderment over the increasingly aggressive rhetoric.
“Many of us were early Putin critics who now find ourselves in the awkward position of having to try to argue Americans off the ledge, or at least off the path to war, when it comes to dealing with the Putin regime.
“There's a lot of history that's being glossed over in the rush to restore Russia to an archenemy role.

…

“For all the fears about Trump being a Manchurian Candidate bent on destroying America from within, the far more likely nightmare endgame involves our political establishment egging the moron Trump into a shooting war as a means of proving his not-puppetness.
“This already almost happened once, when Trump fired missiles into Syria with Russian troops on the ground, seemingly as a means of derailing a Russiagate furor that was really spiraling that particular week. That episode proved that the absolute worst time to bang the war drum under “Trump is when he's feeling vulnerable on Russia – which he clearly is now.
“Rising anti-Russian hysteria and a nuclear button-holder in the White House who acts before he thinks is a very bad combination. We should try to chill while we still can, especially since the Russians, once again, probably aren't as powerful as we think.”

[Aka]

well sir,
even if they were not involved with intelligence gathering in US, they do counter-intelligence.

And given your service, you are probably well known to that organization.

[Lyttenburgh]

"Why do you people keep prattling on about the FSB?"

Because "FSB (former KGB)" is the meme. It's far more easier for the punditocracy and their intended auditory to consume easy, dumbed down narrative. When you try to show the world more resembing the reality, history or when you require your readership to (Heaven forbid!) learn new facts, you are at risk of losing them. No, Everybody Knows (TM), that FSB = KGB. KGB ran spying rings. Ergo - FSB does the same now.

How much the ruling elites in the West subscribe to this worldview I, honestly, don't know. But I'm already pessimistic about them and their mental capacity.

2Aka

"BTW, I think FSB does foreign intelligence on former soviet states. I remember reading somewhere that SVR is not allowed to do that due to some agreement."

I;d really like to see your sources.

[Allen Thomson]

Biographic intelligence is kind of basic, and I'd very surprised if both the KGB and the GRU didn't both have shops dedicated to it in times past. Perhaps the SVR/FSB maintain the KGB's as a service of common concern.

[Lyttenburgh]

"Matt Taibbi was co-editor of an English language newspaper in Moscow during the late 90s and early 00s, and as this obviously implies he lived in Russia for quite some time."

Both of them left country in 2008 and never visited it since then. The fact that their halcyon days of gonzo journalism happened to be in the "glorious democratic 90s" (c) surely resulted in some psychological/professional deformation of the worldview. I mean - calling both the USSR and Russia "a 3rd world country"?

Matt Taibbi is a classic "Dove", i.e. he is an arrogant liberast, who thinks that Russia is not important. Pretty much like watered down Obama pre-2013, aka the former Democratic mainstream.

"He speaks Russian and knows the people well."

Given that during his eXile magazine days he spent most of the time in Moscow drinking, snorting and screwing around, I wouldn't say tha the "knows the people". He knows some people, aka westernized big city urbanites, whom amount to about 2-5% of the populace. Or, what, all the rest does not count?

[turcopolier]

All

In the case of the FSB officers in the Chechnaya court case, they were in uniform one was a major, the other was a LT. Col. I assumed that they consulted their biographic files overnight. People may not realize that FSB/SVR people are not soldiers. They are essentially para-military police types. The GRU are members of the Russian Army. pl

[Lyttenburgh]

Sorry, maybe its just me, but when I see a headline "What Does Russiagate Look Like to Russians?", I expect to have exactly what it says on the tin. Nothing here in the article from Russians, either ranking officials or the ordinary people on the street. Taibbi can't deliver such promise in the first place, being away from the country and all that. This is his opinion based on personal biases, yes. But he has to mask it the form of the "journalism". RS better stick to covering muscic Industry scandals.

[The Twisted Genius]

Richardstevenhack,

I found a good article about current Russian cyberwar written by a Russian who spoke to Russians. The author is a reporter with Meduza, a new news source formed by former reporters and an editor of lenta.ru. Lenta.ru was a popular news source in Moscow. An editor and 20 reporters left to form Meduza in Riga, Latvia after the editor was fired in a takeover by the Russian government.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2017/07/19/moscow-s-cyber-defense

The info here is much better than what Carr provided and is much more in line with what I know of the real situation. It doesn't paint the Russians as demons or angels. The same author did an earlier article about Russia's cyberwar capabilities and relationship with hackers, but it's only available in Russian. I'll try to get translated and available on SST somehow.

As to Carr's claim that the SVR would be involved in the alleged DNC hack, I don't buy it. They work overseas not with Russia-based hackers. Unless they were involved with the alleged stealing of DNC files on site or arranging the alleged passage of DNC material in Rock Creek Park, it would not be the SVR. I have no idea what relationship the GRU has with Russian hackers, so I have no idea why the IC, CrowdStrike and others think the GRU is involved. The GRU does have a SIGINT directorate, but since they're so much better at the art of STFU we just don't know what that entails.

[A.I.Schmelzer]

Crowdstrike believes the GRU is involved because, based on their pretty faulty metrics, it was supposedly not the FSB. So they googled "Russian spy agency that is not the FSB" and GRU was the thing that came out.

The whole Felix Edmundovich (no GRU agent would ever use Felix Edmundovich as a callsign. Just no. GRU vs Cheka-descendents rivalry is a serious thing) thing on its own should basically disqualify the crowdstrike thing.

To the best of my knowledge all somewhat cyber related Russian spy agencies make use of Russian (and the occassional Ukrainian or Belorussian, Russians are preferred though) hackers. They all have the ability to offer a roof, and why not use cheap and deniable agents? The SVR/GRU/FSB can all do "do not arrest this hacker unless he seriously fucks up" notices to the Russian police which is all they need to induct/conscript hackers.

They also all informally claim that the other agencies contract out hackers dumb enough to get caught, while they are the sage ones who contract the good hackers capable enough to avoid run ins with Russian law enforcement.

Interstingly, the actual likely Russian state hack, that of the equation group does not get mentioned much. Despite the fact that this was blatantly Russia, which we know because the Russians intended to do that as a show of force.
Russia apparently saw the following threat:
If the Americans believe that the pretty clownish Podesta and DNC hacks are representative of Russias cyber ability, they may well decide to go for full cyber war against Russia (if the DNC hack was the epitome of Russian hacking, the US would win that cyber war easily. Of course, it is not). The winner in such a cyber war would be China.

Also, the podesta hack was easy enough to be just a Russian hacker looking for patriotic brownie points/get of of jail cards.
You see, if you are a Russian hacker, you can get decently rich, but you typically kind of exist at the mercy of law enforcement.

Even if you do not hack Russian sites/offer illict merchandise in Russia etc., you would still be breaking Russian tax law.
Once they get you, which always happens in the long run, you either get forcibly acquainted with every snowflake in Siberia or people decide that your business if profitable and turn you into a wage slave (wage wont be very good) in your own (well, no longer) little hacking corporation. Unless of course you have one of the mythical "dont go to jail" cards.
How to get those? Well, provide to the authorities something that they want and that isnt money (they can just take money from you without breaking any sweat whatsorever).
A thing an average Russian hacker can provide to the authorities is deniability mixed up with some spying/trolling and other cyber things.
Which is precisely what they do. Do your normal money making hacking thing on 4 days of the week, then invest friday into hacking dumb but politically important Americans, and hope that this suffices for a Get out of Jail card.

The authorities will generally be mildly bemused by these antics. First, they never actually clarified what is neccessary for a Get out of Jail card, so the hackers never quite know when they are safe. Second, the hackers are essentially doing something useful in return for the authorities doing nothing, which is a pretty great deal for the authorities. Third, they can actually use this to cheaply scout for useful talent, and fourth taking over hacking enterprises is a useful little black budget extra revenue that will be unknown to rival Russian or foreign spy agencies.