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Russian foreign intelligence chief says CIA is among world’s best

Sergei Naryshkin noted that his service is also one of the best

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. /TASS/. The United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is among the world’s top three strongest and most authoritative intelligence services, along with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, director of the Russian Service, said on Sunday.

"I must say we respect our colleagues, opponents and partners in the Central Intelligence Agency. I have already said it and will repeat it again that this special service is among the world, five, well, even three really strongest and most authoritative intelligence services. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service is among them too," he said in an interview with the Solovyov Live YouTube channel partially shown on the Rossiya-1 television channel.

In an address to the US intelligence community on July 27, US President Joe Biden claimed that American intelligence agencies were much better than Russia’s and Russian President Vladimir Putin was worried over this fact.

According to Naryshkin, Russia respects the CIA, its experiences employees and analysts. "We are aware of their strong points but we know ours too. AS for the Central Intelligence Agency, of course, its resources, its financial resources are tens times as big as the budget of the Foreign Intelligence Service, but as Alexander Suvorov (Russian military commander known for his victories in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-91 and in the French Revolutionary Wars - TASS) used to say, Russians ‘win with ability, not with numbers,’" he said.

"We admit that, I repeat, they are one of the best in the world," he noted, adding that his service is also one of the best.

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