MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. Russia’s foreign intelligence has abandoned the Soviet legacy and no longer works against one main adversary, its focus being on Russia’s strategic interests, such as struggle against terrorism, regional stability and protection of state sovereignty from external intervention, the director of the foreign intelligence service SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, told the weekly Argumenty i Fakty in an interview.

"The term main adversary emerged in a bipolar world system. Russia’s intelligence service dropped this somewhat simplified term (albeit useful in its day) following the breakup of the Soviet Union and the emergence of new threats and challenges to security and Russia’s peaceful development. Such threats include not only international terrorism, but regional conflicts, too, and, of course, attempts by the collective West to upset the internal stability of Russia and friendly countries," he said.

"In the broader sense the intelligence service’s activity is geared to safeguarding the strategic interests of the Russian state and guided by the tasks set by the Russian president," he added. Naryshkin said that depending on the seriousness of threats the Russian intelligence formulated the priorities of its work and identified Russia’s enemies and ways of neutralizing their malicious designs.

"In these complex and controversial times there are many fronts of struggle against the ‘world evil’ - terrorism, drug trafficking, cybercrime, illegal migration and others. In this struggle we interact with our foreign partners. Naturally, the levels of cooperation vary greatly depending on the expediency, geography and general context of Russia’s relations with this or that country," he concluded.