If the definition of a successful intelligence service is obscurity, the GRU is probably Russia’s most effective spy agency.
In communist times, the KGB became a byword in the West for Soviet spooks, whether they were infiltrating corridors of power abroad or suppressing dissidents at home, but few people ever heard of the GRU (an acronym pronounced like the English word “grew”).
Yet the military intelligence service – GRU stands for Main Intelligence Directorate – outlasted the KGB when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and appears to be flourishing today.
