Russia's establishment of a KGB-like Ministry of State Security is... fake news

A Russian government representative confirmed that the news that Russia is reforming its security and intelligence sector and establishing a Ministry of State Security (like the KGB) is 100% fake news.

Sergei Ivanov, the Russian President's Special Envoy for Ecology, recently said that the Russian government is not currently considering creating a new ministry in charge of national security.

Anti-terrorism task force of the Russian security service FSB. Photo: Sputnik.

Media reported in September that the Russian government plans 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 ministry is said to be in charge of important criminal cases and act as an internal oversight agency, similar to the KGB agency in the past.

“This is 100% fake news! We have never considered creating a state security agency and I assure you it will never happen... There are enough security agencies already,” Mr Ivanov told the online newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

According to news last month, the reform of security and law enforcement agencies will be completed by the end of the upcoming Russian elections, in March 2018. This is expected to entail merging the agency protecting the Russian President and senior state officials with the intelligence agency.

According to VOV