On the fragments of the tsarist army on November 5, 1918, a key structure for the state was born - military intelligence (now Russian), which today has become the most closed public service. The decree was signed in Petrograd, according to him, the Registration Office was formed to coordinate the work of army intelligence. Today, the central organ of military intelligence in Russia is officially named the Main Directorate - the GRU.
They understood that without the normal operation of such a structure, which should become powerful and highly equipped, the life and security of a huge country could be in jeopardy.
Even the mass terror of the 30s did not ruin the Intelligence Agency, although much was destroyed and destroyed. Since 1991, the GRU has not undergone radical changes, having acquired the largest intelligence network in the world.
GRU today
Do not confuse military intelligence with external intelligence (when the USSR was in office, this activity was led by the First KGB Glavk). Since October 5, 2016, the Foreign Intelligence Service is headed by Sergei Naryshkin, previously this post was held by Mikhail Fradkov.
Since January 2016, the GRU has been headed by Lieutenant General Igor Korobov, who is directly subordinate to the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu. The head of the GRU has a direct relationship with the president of the Russian Federation as the supreme commander in chief and is no longer subordinate to any political representatives.
Money or security
Intelligence is a very expensive part of the budget, but is military security a subject for price disputes, when the entire state and the people living in it can be threatened? That will help to determine with the highest possible accuracy the targets, for example, of terrorists in Syria, as was recently done by military intelligence using its modern technical equipment.
Activities
In the framework of ensuring national security of the state , military intelligence forces obtain, analyze and summarize information on the military-political situation around Russia, make forecasts, and the top political leadership and the Armed Forces of the country receive real information about threats to Russia's military security and the national interests of the state.
Russian intelligence officers are required to know all the nuances of the armed forces of foreign states, their equipment and weapons, be able to guess maneuvers, understand the economics of processes. Accordingly, Russian military intelligence cannot but have an interest in armed conflicts of a regional and local nature, it necessarily takes part in them, as far as possible it is introduced into particularly acute zones, and it shows increased attention to the situation and actions of foreign partners.
The modern GRU is practically the only intelligence service in the world that combines all the intelligence types possible today. In order to avert the threat to Russia's military security, all areas of work are concentrated here, while the number of employees is much smaller than that of similar foreign services. High professionalism of scouts allows you to do with a minimum of staff.
Special Forces - Former Partisans
When remembering the Soviet partisans, an understanding comes that this is exactly the same intelligence project. Personnel reconnaissance officers worked behind enemy lines, and the theory and methods of guerrilla warfare from the 1950s were the basis for GRU special forces — they took all the basics of preparation and methods of warfare.
Today, special forces brigades have become part of the regular army, they have significantly expanded the range of tasks. Today the nuclear threat is in priority , special weapons and uniforms are being introduced.
Intelligence Tasks
The foundations of the country's military security are deeply systematic. The activities encompass both external relations with states, peaceful coexistence with them, and ensuring internal security in the country itself: measures to achieve civil harmony, solving problems of a social, economic, and political nature. All problems are correlated with each other, nothing is solved individually.
Intelligence solves tasks of a different nature: strategic, tactical and operational. In the first case, it is about collecting information at large distances from the state border. Tactical tasks include listening and surveillance, interrogations and reconnaissance in battle. If the tasks are set to study the area of potential hostilities, as well as to assess the military power of the enemy, then in these cases they talk about operational intelligence.
Data collection tools
Ensuring the country's military security, the GRU collects and processes data on the armed forces of foreign countries using a huge amount of means: bugs and similar devices, cameras and radar equipment, computers and satellites. Not to mention recruiting agents.
Ensuring military security, in fact, serves as a catalyst for the scientific and technological progress of Russia.
According to experts, the events that took place in the 1990s shook the potential of the military intelligence of our state, but then its global regeneration soon began, and today Russia has restored its lost power to the maximum.
The West has also lost a lot. In the 1990s, NATO member countries disbanded intelligence units that collect information about Russia, and experienced employees retired.
The composition and structure of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation include three types of troops - the Ground Forces, whose units conduct combat operations mainly on land, the Air Force, designed to defend the country and repel air strikes, and the Navy, designed to conduct military operations in sea and ocean territories.
By designation, all troops are divided into Strategic Missile Forces (Strategic Missile Forces), Space (with radar stations, missile defense systems, space systems) and Airborne troops. There are also Rear Services (providing the army and navy with material means, preparing equipment, means of communication, ensuring the restoration of equipment and property) and Special units of the Russian Armed Forces (communications, electronic warfare, psychological operations, chemical and bacteriological defense units, and not only).
The Air Force, designed to work in the rear, has a wide arsenal of combat, training and transport aircraft, helicopters, anti-aircraft missiles and other special forces equipment.
Strategic missile forces are designed to destroy strategic targets of the enemy anywhere in the world. These are missile associations with modern complexes with intercontinental ballistic missiles that have no analogues in the world.
The airborne troops are armed with combat vehicles, artillery and howitzers of various classes, anti-aircraft, small arms. All equipment can be parachuted using the military transport aircraft Il-76 and An-22.
Territory
In addition to the structure of the armed forces of Russia, there is their division on a territorial basis. Armed forces cover 6 land districts: Moscow, Leningrad and North Caucasus, as well as the Volga-Ural and Siberian, and finally, the Far East. The sea territories of the state are subordinate to four fleets: the Black Sea, Baltic, Northern and Pacific.