A Glossary of Russian Police & Security Service Acronyms and Abbreviations

This list covers the period since the collapse of the USSR. Where dates are given, this indicates a term or institution created and/or disbanded since August 1991. Where it says ‘of the MVD’ it means of the central All-Russian apparatus. It has been compiled from a wide range of open media sources, and cannot pretend to be either comprehensive or conclusive. In a few cases, contradictory or widely used but strictly speaking inaccurate definitions have been included.