GRU

GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence main directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (formerly the Soviet Army General Staff of the Soviet Union). GRU is the English transliteration of the Russian acronym ГРУ, which stands for "Главное Разведывательное Управление", meaning Main Intelligence Directorate. The official full name translation is Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is also known as GRU GSh (short for GRU Generalnovo Shtaba, or ГРУ Генерального штаба, i.e. "GRU of the General Staff").

The GRU is Russia's largest foreign intelligence agency. In 1997 it deployed six times as many agents in foreign countries as the SVR, the successor of the KGB's foreign operations directorate. It also commanded 25,000 Spetsnaz troops in 1997.

The current GRU Director is Major General Igor Sergun.