When the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991 following the abortive August coup, the conventional wisdom of some in the US intelligence community was that the West had won the Cold War and the threat of Soviet KGB/GRU intelligence collection would become a problem of the past. Yet Aldrich Ames, Jim Nicholson and Robert Hanssen were all run by Russia’s SVR after the Soviet Union was dissolved. Contrary to popular belief, the KGB and GRU did not go away but simply morphed into ultimately three organizations under Putin: the SVR, FSB, and GRU.

The population of the USSR was approximately 293 million people and in 1991, the size of the KGB was approximately 493,000 personnel. Today, the population of the Russian Federation is approximately 142 million people, which represents over a 50% reduction, yet today’s SVR/FSB is approximately 400,000 personnel, or less than a 20% reduction. There are more SVR/FSB personnel per capita in today’s Russia than during the period of the Soviet Empire, and there are at least as many SVR officers in the US today as there were KGB officers during the Cold War.

Many experts believe that Russia is becoming a restored counterintelligence state, but this time as a Chekist State, since former KGB officers now hold a disproportionate number of leading political positions. Further, the FSB is intensifying its counterintelligence operations against Western embassies and visitors.