Meet Russian Spy Boss Sergey Naryshkin

The SVR chief pegs his rise to a chance meeting with Putin in the bowels of the KGB’s Leningrad Office

Feb 11, 2022

∙ Paid

On a cool October day in Moscow in 2017, Sergey Naryshkin, the head of the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, stepped up to the microphone at an outdoor ceremony to unveil a statue honoring a notable predecessor.

"The name of Pavel Fitin is returning to our history," Naryshkin said of the man who ran the Soviet Union's foreign spying apparatus…

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A guest post by

Filip Kovacevic

Filip Kovacevic (@ChekistMonitor) has more than 20 years of university teaching experience in Russia, the Balkans, and the U.S. He specializes in Soviet/Russian intelligence/counterintelligence history & spy fiction.