Foreign Intelligence stamp

[deValcourt]

I got this one in the mail (not on it) today and had no idea there was such a badge.

Two things: 80th anniversary of the SVR (former First Chief Directorate of the KGB) and now its own agency independent of the FSB; second - if anybody has a line on one of these (badges, I have the postage stamp now), please let me know. I have one of the impossible to find MMD "Honored Employee" SVR badges (just like my "avatar" but with CBP where the "ПГУ" is on the lower part of the red enameled circle), but not one of these so I am very interested in finding one - hint, hint for you folks who still live in the Motherland.

I also find it very interesting that a government would put the most secretive organization it has on a postage stamp.

Moreover, note that the badge has the ИНО as the origin and the ПГУ (First Chief Directorate) as the final version before the СВР. The INO was a little-known department of the Cheka and later versions of the security services. "Little known" in that there is almost nothing published or recorded in the archives (that I know of) of the Cheka-KGB.

Phillip