MOSCOW, Dec 15 - RIA Novosti. The information extracted and analyzed by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service makes it possible to predict, and sometimes to forestall the occurrence and development of crisis situations, said SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin.
"We pay special attention to predictive activity. Fortunately, we have someone to take an example from in it," Naryshkin said in an interview with the Argumenty I Fakty newspaper on the eve of the 101st anniversary of the creation of the SVR, celebrated on December 20.
Naryshkin recalled that Soviet intelligence, despite Stalin's sometimes distrust, reported to him very accurate data on the offensive plans of Hitler's Germany.
"And it's not just about the date and directions of the German strike. The destructive processes launched by Hitler within German society, first of all, the conscious implantation of the idea of German exclusivity, already in the 1930s allowed us to conclude that Germany's attempts to secure a "living space" at the expense of our country were inevitable," Naryshkin said. What was happening then was well understood in intelligence, he noted.
According to the director of the SVR, to see such signs of an impending threat ahead of time and correctly interpret them is the most important task of intelligence, and one of its highest achievements is "to predict the plans of geopolitical rivals on the basis of the development of objective international trends even before they take clear and strict outlines for themselves."
"Today, professionals working in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, with special care and the use of the most modern methods, extract and analyze information that allows predicting and sometimes anticipating the occurrence and development of crisis situations. And, as time shows, our conclusions can be relied upon," Naryshkin said.
