MOSCOW, November 2 (Itar-Tass) — Chief of the Foreign Military Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the General Staff of Russia's armed forces Col-Gen Alexander Shlyakhturov warned about the increasing factors of instability and uncertainty in the world.
"We observe increasing factors of instability and uncertainty. Many regions are building up conflict potential. New challenges and threats have appeared related to the fight for natural resources, proliferation of nuclear technologies and technogenic catastrophes," Shlyakhturov said in an interview to the newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta published on Wednesday. "Unlike the time of the "Cold War," when the world "enemy" was broadly used, we now talk about "the threats that have become more diverse and multi-vector."
According to the GRU chief, terrorist and extremist organizations pose the largest danger. He underlined that his department watches, in the first place, the regions from which threats to Russia’s national interests of military security emanate or can emanate. "Such regions include the so-called conflict areas where terrorist and extremist groups operate, crises areas that affect international stability and security and the sources and possible routes of illegal proliferation of nuclear materials and components of weapons of mass destructions," Shlyakhturov explained. Speaking about the GRU's current situation, he noted that the GRU is practically the only secret service in the world which comprises all the kinds and directions of intelligence work existing at the present time."
"The GRU has services that gain intelligence, operations and technical services, as well as information/analytical bodies that support GRU divisions. We have technologies opportunities to operate in the electromagnetic sphere and in outer space. This enables us to obtain important information about the situation in the zones of armed conflicts in the areas in which military intelligence is interested," the Col-Gen stressed. "By their combat capability, Russian special task forces by no means are inferior to special tasks forces of the world’s leading states, and even exceed them by some aspects," Shlyakhturov said.