Intelligence Services Remain ‘Almost Sole’ Link Between Russia, Europe — SVR

Responding to a question about whether the Russian side observes more common sense in the approaches of European countries’ intelligence services than in the activities of their politicians, Sergey Naryshkin noted that "the approaches of intelligence services generally align with the policies of their states"

Director of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service of Sergey Naryshkin Valeria Kalugina/TASS

© Valeria Kalugina/TASS

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. These days, nearly the only communication Russia and Europe have is between intelligence services, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin said in an interview with TASS.

Responding to a question about whether the Russian side observes more common sense in the approaches of European countries’ intelligence services than in the activities of their politicians, Naryshkin noted that "the approaches of intelligence services generally align with the policies of their states."

"But given the non-existent state of diplomatic relations due to current circumstances, the partner channel is almost the sole link of interaction between states," he emphasized.

Naryshkin added that the corresponding channel "operates with different countries, with different intelligence services, to varying extents, depending on the level of interstate relations, depending on the tasks facing each special service.".