The news that Russia is establishing a Ministry of State Security similar to the KGB is... fake news.

Russian government representatives have asserted that news claiming Russia is reforming its security and intelligence sectors and creating a Ministry of State Security (similar to the KGB) is 100% fake.

Sergei Ivanov, the Russian President's special envoy for ecology, recently stated that the Russian government is not currently considering creating a new ministry responsible for national security.

Counter-terrorism special forces of the Russian security agency FSB. Photo: Sputnik.

Media reports in September indicated that the Russian government planned to create a ministry called the Ministry of State Security based on the Federal Security Service (FSB) – Russia's main security agency.

Accordingly, this new department is expected to handle important criminal cases and act as an internal oversight agency, much like the KGB once did.

Ivanov told the online newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda: “That’s 100% fake news! We have never considered creating a national security agency, and I assure you that will never happen... We already have enough security agencies.”

According to news reports last month, the restructuring of security and law enforcement agencies will be completed by the end of the upcoming Russian elections in March 2018. This is expected to involve merging the agency responsible for protecting the Russian President and high-ranking state officials with the intelligence services.

According to VOV