MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. The deterioration of the general environment amid rampant Russophobia in the West complicates the work of Russia's foreign intelligence service, the agency's Director Sergey Naryshkin said in an interview with the Razvedchik magazine.
"The situation is fundamentally different now," he explained. "Unfortunately, the deteriorating Western system - the totalitarian-liberal bloc - is actively fostering a Russophobic atmosphere within Western societies. Over the past two to two and a half years, the level of Russophobia has reached unprecedented levels. Naturally, this impacts the operations of our foreign offices in Europe and North America, which is likely the most significant change," he added.
The SVR chief recalled that "in the mid-1980s, the Cold War was still underway, marked by the confrontation between two systems and their primary representatives - the USSR and the United States." "Nevertheless, the overall atmosphere of interactions between Soviet citizens and Western representatives was relatively positive. There was no pervasive sense of a deep divide on a human level," Naryshkin noted.