Russian chief spy says he won’t congratulate CIA

The US agency’s 75-year history is made up of scandals, provocations, and meddling in other countries, Sergey Naryshkin explained

The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin has said he won’t send any greetings to the US Central Intelligence Agency on its upcoming 75th anniversary.  He cited the organization’s controversial activities and “provocations against sovereign states” as his reasons.

On Wednesday, Naryshkin published an article dedicated to the birthday of the CIA, which is marked on September 18. On this day in 1947, then-US President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act, which became one of the most instrumental pieces of legislation of the Cold War period. 

“The history of this agency is made up of numerous provocations, surrounded by a halo of myths, secrets and scandals,” the SVR chief wrote in his piece, entitled ‘75 candles on CIA’s birthday cake’. Hardly any conflict that occurred around the globe over that past seven-and-a-half decades went on without the mentioning of the CIA, he added.  

Going into the 76th year of its existence, the CIA “remains a zealous perpetrator of the will of the ruling elites of its country [the US]. Despite the significant changes taking place, those elites continue to think of themselves as hegemons in a unipolar world,” the SVR chief insisted.

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“Despite being an intelligence organization by name, it has a visible tendency towards subversive and disruptive activities aimed against sovereign states,” he wrote.

Because of this, “there will be no birthday congratulations and wishes [to the CIA]. As there can be no compromise in assessing its role in history and its ‘merits’ before humanity,” Naryshkin concluded.