Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is the current incarnation of one of the world’s oldest espionage agencies, known for decades as the KGB.
Tracing its lineage to the Soviet Union’s NKVD Foreign Department, established on 20 December 1920, the SVR is the official successor to multiple intelligence agencies, ranging from the original “foreign department” of the Cheka under Vladimir Lenin, to the OGPU of the Stalin era and the First Chief Directorate of the KGB.
