Russia's Ex-Spy Chief Shares Opinions Of His American Counterparts

... spy? "To be frank, everyone who was in Calcutta was considered to be a spy. Everyone. Every journalist," he said. Getting The Top Job Twenty-nine years after he became a spy, Trubnikov ascended to the top job. He ran Russia's answer to the CIA, the SVR, or Foreign Intelligence Service, from 1996 to 2000. The SVR succeeded the KGB after the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991. For a man who has lived his life in the shadows, Trubnikov is surprisingly candid when asked, for example, about some of the U.S. officials he has worked with. "Amazing personality. Marvelous personality....