At the exhibition “Foreign Intelligence. From the Past to the Future”, which opened at the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia in Moscow, Russia's foreign intelligence service's Director Sergey Naryshkin presented the collection “The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation. 100 years. Documents and certificates". In it, for the first time, many historical documents were introduced into scientific circulation, including those that tell about the milestones in the history of domestic foreign intelligence from the moment of its creation on December 20, 1920 to the present day.
According to RIA Novosti, among the discoveries of the Second World War, the fact is mentioned that in 1942 the Nazi army intended to use chemical weapons to seize Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus. These deposits were of strategic importance to the Third Reich.
As reported by the resident of Soviet foreign intelligence in Sweden, Boris Rybkin, who worked under the operational pseudonym Keene, Germany was in a catastrophic situation in terms of oil reserves: due to a lack of fuel during the operation, German fighters were out of order. According to him, in the struggle for domination in the Caucasus, the Nazis "put everything at stake": they believed that the outcome of the war depended on the success of the operation in the Caucasus.
“The battle for control over the Caucasus lasted from July 25, 1942 to October 9, 1943. It ended with a counter-offensive by Soviet soldiers in the Kuban, but the enemy did not succeed in inflicting a decisive defeat”, - notes Lenta.ru.
The Nazis intended to use chemical weapons despite the fact that its use was prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925.
Subsequently, the use of chemical weapons was banned several times by the Hague Convention of 1899, as well as the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction.
Nevertheless, in the year of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, information appeared about the use of chemical weapons against civilians.
On December 14, 2020, The Insider, Bellingcat and CNN, with the participation of Der Spiegel, published a joint investigation indicating that the Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny was poisoned with the Novichok military nerve poison, while the institute employees were involved in the attempt on the politician forensics FSB. In the investigation, the names of the alleged poisoners were named and their photographs were published.
Commenting on the investigation, at a conference on December 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he suspected Navalny of "enjoying the support of the US intelligence services".
“And if this is correct, then it’s interesting, then the special services, of course, should look after him. But this does not mean at all that he will be hounded. Who needs it?", - said the head of state.