MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/. The department of military counterintelligence should be reformed to be granted a higher status and wider functions, including the resources of operative and combat groups in Russia’s newly-incorporated regions and in the frontline zone, military analyst Igor Korotchenko has said in a column written for TASS.

"The best practices of World War II military counterintelligence service Smersh (Death to Spies) should be revived. Another important measure worth taking is to upgrade the status of military counterintelligence. Of course, this is not the Defense Ministry’s competence, but the task of the Federal Security Service and its department of military counterintelligence. The FSB's counter-intelligence provides counterintelligence support for the activities of the Defense Ministry and all components of the Russian Armed Forces," says Korotchenko, the editor-in-chief of National Defense magazine.

"In the new military-political reality there is an obvious need for transforming the Department of Military Counterintelligence into a full-fledged 3rd service within the FSB and to expand its functions by creating, among other things, commando units and crack forces on the territory of the newly-incorporated constituent entities of the Russian Federation and near the frontline. They are needed to counteract Ukraine’s sabotage and reconnaissance groups and enemy agents. The Smersh counter-intelligence service did this job remarkably well in its day and its experience and best practices should now be revived built up from."

Korotchenko believes that Defense Minister Andrey Belousov’s systemic approach may help tap the potential of military intelligence.

"Another major issue on the agenda is multiplying the potential of military intelligence in using undercover agents and penetrating the enemy's decision-making, radio-electronic and space reconnaissance centers. Belousov is a technocrat and his systemic view can yield good results, provided the target is set correctly to increase the capabilities of the main department of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (former GRU)," he added.