March 21, 2003
www.aeronautics.ru
The Main Intelligence Directorate (Glavnoye
Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye, or GRU) is the all-seeing
eye of the Russian military. Everybody in the West knows
about the KGB but the GRU has always been Russia’s primary
and most capable intelligence agency with thousands of
agents all over the world. This massive intelligence organization
among other means of gathering intelligence is involved
in all types of electronic reconnaissance operations, including
communication intelligence (COMINT), electromagnetic intelligence
(ELINT), radar intelligence (RADINT), television intelligence
(TELINT) and infrared sets reconnaissance.
The GRU has full command of all intelligence-gathering
assets of the Russian Armed Forces, including spy satellites,
reconnaissance aircraft, ships, submarines and other equipment.
The GRU is subordinated only to the Defense Minister and
to the Chief of General Staff and is not directly reporting
to the political leadership of Russia. The current intelligence
reporting structure denies Russian civilian leadership
direct access to the intelligence produced by the GRU.
For example, even Russia’s top civilian government members
can get access to GRU reports only through the Defense
Minister or the Chief of General Staff.
The exact structure of the GRU is a state secret but it
is known that the GRU consists of twelve primary directorates
(departments) and nine auxiliary departments. The primary
directorates are: the First directorate handling all intelligence
gathering operations in Europe; the Second directorate
is responsible for the regions of North and South Americas,
Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand; the Third directorate
is covering Asia; all military intelligence gathering operations
in Africa are handled by the Fourth Directorate; the Fifth
directorate handles tactical reconnaissance; the Sixth
directorate is responsible for all radio electronic reconnaissance
and shares satellite reconnaissance responsibilities with
the auxiliary satellite reconnaissance department; The
Seventh directorate is tasked with gathering intelligence
on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; the Eighth directorate
concentrates on gathering intelligence on countries of
particular interest at any given time; the Ninth directorate
collects intelligence information on military technologies;
the Tenth directorate deals with issues of military finances;
the Eleventh directorate handles all matters relevant to
military doctrines and weapon types of foreign armies;
the Twelfth directorate is a counterintelligence force.
The GRU possesses the larges and the most elite group
of special operations forces consisting of 24 assault units
numbering up to 25,000 troops. This force forms the core
of the Russian Army. To serve in the GRU special force
units an applicant must have already served at least five
years with other special forces and have a rank of Captain.
The number of agents operated by the GRU during the Soviet
era was six times the number of agents operated by the
KGB.
Venik
- You can read
GRU reports from Iraq here

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