Russia revives an old "Bond movie" era organisation: MoD Defence intelligence update 8th January 2023

When you hear of "SMERSH" you think of the James Bond novels and movies - the term is an abbreviation for the Russian for "Death to Spies" and the original organisation was founded by Josef Stalin at the time of World War II.

However, today's MoD Defence intelligence bulletin says that Russian politicians have said the organisation has been re-established.














Russian bots and trolls are trying to ridicule this, but there was indeed, as reported in the MoD bulletin, at least one statement from a Russian politician in late 2023 that SMERSH has been re-established. Andrey Gurulyov, member of the Russian parliament or Duma and a former military commander, made this claim on the Russian state television channel Russia-1 late last year, and an excerpt of the appearance was posted to his Telegram channel. 


Here is a Newsweek report dated December 2023 on Gurulyov's statement:

What is SMERSH? Russia Revives Stalin-Era Spy-Hunting Squads in Ukraine (newsweek.com)

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