Analyser: ”Elitgruppen” GRU var klantiga amatörer

The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Russian: Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых Сил Росси́йской Федера́ции), abbreviated G.U., formerly the Main Intelligence Directorate (Russian: Гла́вное разве́дывательное управле́ние, tr. Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye, IPA: [ˈɡlavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə]) and still commonly known by its previous abbreviation GRU (Russian: ГРУ, IPA: [ɡeeˈru]), is the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (formerly the USSR′s General Staff). Unlike Russia′s other security and intelligence agencies, such as the SVR, the FSB, and the FSO, whose heads report directly to the president of Russia, Director of GRU is subordinate to the Russian military command, i.e. the minister of defence and the Chief of the General Staff. Until 2010, the GRU combined a military intelligence service and special forces. The Directorate is reputedly Russia's largest foreign intelligence agency. According to unverified statements by GRU defector Stanislav Lunev, in 1997 the agency deployed six times as many agents in foreign countries as the SVR, the successor of the KGB's foreign operations directorate (PGU KGB). It also commanded 25,000 Spetsnaz troops in 1997.