Federal Security Service in the context of Surveillance

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the primary federal law enforcement agency in the United States and also the American domestic intelligence and security service. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the attorney general and the director of national intelligence. A leading American counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes. The FBI maintains a list of its top 10 most wanted fugitives.

Although many of the FBI's functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and NCA and the Russian FSB. Unlike the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which has no law enforcement authority and is focused on intelligence collection abroad, the FBI is primarily a domestic agency, maintaining 56 field offices in major cities throughout the United States, and more than 400 resident agencies in smaller cities and areas across the nation. At an FBI field office, a senior-level FBI officer concurrently serves as the representative of the director of national intelligence.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He has been described as the de facto leader of Russia since 2000.

Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He resigned in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, he moved to Moscow to join the administration of President Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and then as secretary of the Security Council of Russia before being appointed prime minister in August 1999. Following Yeltsin's resignation, Putin became acting president and, less than four months later in May 2000, was elected to his first term as president. He was reelected in 2004. Due to constitutional limitations on two consecutive presidential terms, Putin served as prime minister again from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev. He returned to the presidency in 2012, following an election marked by allegations of fraud and protests, and was reelected in 2018.

The Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is the civilian foreign intelligence agency of Russia. The SVR succeeded the First Chief Directorate of the KGB in December 1991. The SVR has its headquarters in the Yasenevo District of Moscow with its director reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation.

Unlike the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the SVR is tasked with intelligence and espionage activities outside the Russian Federation. A small service, it works collaboratively with its military intelligence counterpart, the Main Intelligence Directorate, better known as the GRU. As of 1997, the GRU reportedly deployed six times as many spies in foreign countries as the SVR. The SVR is authorized to negotiate intelligence-sharing arrangements with foreign governments, particularly on matters of counterterrorism, and is tasked with providing finished intelligence products to the Russian president.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the attorney general and the director of national intelligence. A leading American counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes. The FBI maintains a list of its top 10 most wanted fugitives.

Although many of the FBI's functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and NCA and the Russian FSB. Unlike the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which has no law enforcement authority and is focused on intelligence collection abroad, the FBI is primarily a domestic agency, maintaining 56 field offices in major cities throughout the United States, and more than 400 resident agencies in smaller cities and areas across the nation. At an FBI field office, a senior-level FBI officer concurrently serves as the representative of the director of national intelligence.

Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin (Russian: И́горь Все́володович Ги́ркин, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ˈfsʲevələdəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲirkʲɪn]; born 17 December 1970), also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov (Russian: И́горь Ива́нович Стрелко́в, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ strʲɪlˈkof]), is a Russian army veteran and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who played a key role in the Russian annexation of Crimea, and then in the Donbas War as an organizer of militant groups in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). In 2024 he was convicted on charges of inciting extremism. Earlier he received a life sentence in absentia in the Netherlands for his role in downing the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Girkin admitted responsibility for sparking the Donbas War in eastern Ukraine when, in April 2014, he led a group of armed Russian militants who seized Sloviansk. His role in the siege gained him influence and attention, and he was appointed to the position of Minister of Defense in the Donetsk People's Republic, a puppet state of Russia. Girkin was charged with terrorism by Ukrainian authorities. He has also been sanctioned by the European Union, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Canada and Switzerland for his leading role in the war in eastern Ukraine.

A Border Security Zone (Russian: пограничная зона) in Russia is the designation of a strip of land (usually, though not always, along a Russian external border) where economic activity and access are restricted in line with the Frontier Regime Regulations set by the Federal Security Service (FSB). For foreign tourists to visit the zone a permit issued by the local FSB department is required.

The restricted access zone (generally 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) width, but running as much as 90 kilometres (56 mi) deep along the Estonian border) was established in the Soviet Union in 1934, and later expanded, at times including vast territories. In 1935–36, in order to secure the western border of the Soviet Union, many nationalities considered unreliable (Poles, Germans, Ingrian Finns, Estonians, Latvians) were forcibly transferred from the zone by forces of the NKVD.

The Russian commando frogmen (Russian: Морской спецназ, romanized: Morskoy spetsnaz), informally called "commando frogmen" in civilian media, are a Russian Naval Spetsnaz unit under operational subordination to the GRU that specialized in amphibious reconnaissance to prepare for amphibious warfare operations, clandestine operation, defense against swimmer incursions, direct action against important strategic or tactical goals, irregular warfare, ISTAR, maritime counterterrorism and hostage rescue, and naval special warfare. It is the special forces unit of the Russian Naval Infantry and is composed of highly trained and elite marines within the Naval Infantry. By virtue of belonging to the Russian Naval Infantry, frogmen fall under the Coastal Troops of the Russian Navy service arm. The Russian Navy proper does not field any special forces or special operations forces. Russian FSB special forces Alpha Group and Vympel also have frogman units in their respective naval components.

Yidongyuan (Chinese: 颐东苑社区; pinyin: Yídōngyuàn shèqū; lit. 'East Summer Palace Garden') is a government compound in Beijing, China which serves as the headquarters of the Ministry of State Security (MSS). The facility consists of an office complex and residential community occupying a full city block in the Xiyuan area of Beijing's Haidian District. Closed to the public, and separated by a perimeter wall, the secretive nondescript facility is believed to be staffed by approximately 10,000 intelligence officers and support staff.

Unlike foreign counterparts such as the American CIA's George Bush Center for Intelligence, the SIS Building housing the British MI6, or the Lubyanka Building of Soviet KGB and Russian FSB, Yidongyuan is distinct in housing employees and their families in apartments on site.

The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formerly the Main Intelligence Directorate, and still commonly known by its previous abbreviation GRU, is the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation tasked with advancing military intelligence through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and conducting clandestine and covert operations. The GRU controls the military intelligence service and maintains its own special forces units.

Unlike Russia's other security and intelligence agencies – such as the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Federal Protective Service (FSO) – whose heads report directly to the president of Russia (see Intelligence agencies of Russia), the director of the GRU is subordinate to the Russian military command, reporting to the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff.

The Federal Counterintelligence Service of the Russian Federation (FSK RF; Russian: Федеральная служба контрразведки Российской Федерации, IPA: [fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnəjə ˈsluʐbə kəntrɐzˈvʲetkʲɪ rɐˈsʲijskəj fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨɪ]) was the main security agency of Russia. It superseded the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation (ru) , and was an overall successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB, which had dissolved two years prior to the FSK’s creation. It existed from 1993 to 1995, when it was reorganized into the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The Director of Russia's Federal Security Service (Директор Федеральной Службы Безопасности) is the head and chief executive officer of the Federal Security Service, which is one of several Russian intelligence agencies. The Director of FSB reports directly to the president of Russia. The Director is assisted by the Deputy Director of the FSB.

The Director is a civilian or a general of the armed forces nominated by the president, with the concurring or nonconcurring recommendation from the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia and must be confirmed by a majority vote of the Federation Council.

Belukha Mountain (/bəˈluːxə/; Russian: Белуха, IPA: [bʲɪˈɫuxəl], also known as Beluga Mountain, Icemount Peak (Kazakh: Мұзтау Шыңы / Mūztau Şyñy [mʊsˈtɑw ʃəˈŋə]), or The Three Peaks (Altay: Ӱч-Сӱмер / Üç-Sümer [ʏc͡ç sʏˈmer]), is the highest peak of the Altai Mountains in Russia and the highest of the South Siberian Mountains system. It is part of the Golden Mountains of Altai World Heritage Site.

Since 2008, one is required to apply for a special border zone permit in order to be allowed into the area (if travelling independently without using an agency). Foreigners should apply for the permit to their regional FSB border guard office two months before the planned date.

Chekism (Russian: Чекизм) was the form of counterintelligence state widely present in the Soviet Union by which secret police, counterintelligence and internal security services (originally the Cheka, hence the name, but most famously the KGB) strongly controlled all spheres of society. Similar circumstances exist in some post-Soviet states, particularly Russia. The term encompasses both the ideological underpinnings justifying often arbitrary repression as well as the political situation where security service members occupy high-level political offices and a lack of civilian control over their activities (in extreme cases, the opposite). The term is sometimes also applied to other Eastern Bloc security services (long-serving East German security chief Erich Mielke was fond of calling himself a Chekist), and, presently, to the federal government of Russia under Vladimir Putin (himself a former KGB officer).

The name is derived from Cheka, the colloquial name of the first in the succession of Soviet secret police agencies. Officers of the succession of security agencies (Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, GUGB, NKGB, MGB, MVD, and, longest-lasting, the KGB), as well as their Russian successors, the Federal Security Service, are often referred to, both by themselves and by the broader public, as "Chekists".