Putin Goes Full Bond Villain

A counterintelligence directorate created by former Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin and made famous by the James Bond novels of author and former British spy Ian Fleming has reportedly made a return to Russia.

SMERSH is a portmanteau of the Russian for "death to spies," or "smert shpionam." It was announced in 1943 as a move to target Nazi spy rings, traitors and foreign agents during the World War II, before it was disbanded in 1946.

Fleming portrayed the group as cold-blooded foes of James Bond. One of his characters was Rosa Klebb—an assassin handy with a flick-knife shoe, who was played by Austrian actress Lotte Lenya in the 1963 film version of From Russia with Love.

Not just a byword for the brutality of the Stalin era, SMERSH has been recreated in the present day to hunt down intelligence officers Moscow believes are targeting Russia, the British Ministry of Defence said on Monday.

In December, Andrey Gurulyov, a Russian parliament (Duma) member and former military commander, told state television channel Russia-1 that SMERSH had been revived in Ukrainian regions that Vladimir Putin declared as annexed, although they are only partially under the control of his forces.

Meanwhile, a video posted on Belgorod Telegram channel Fonar showed local resident Denis Boban apologizing for sharing video of Russian air defenses that had been operating on January 2 against a Ukrainian attack.

He was flanked by two men wearing fatigues with SMERSH uniform patches and described his "willingness to take responsibility," although it is not clear if he faces any criminal charges.

Belgorod has been the scene of Ukrainian airstrikes that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine, saying they have killed more than two dozen people. After the apology, the mayor of Belgorod, Valentin Demidov, later urged people not to share video or photos of militarily sensitive sites, calling any such move a "crime" and "treachery."

While The Times of London said that the two men with the SMERSH insignia could be from another counterintelligence unit using the term informally, or vigilantes, British defense officials referred to their appearance on social media.

The Ministry of Defence's update on Monday said it was unclear if reports of the group's re-emergence showed "any substantive new capabilities or role for Russia's counterintelligence, or whether it is "merely a re-badging."

"However, it provides another example of how the Russian authorities consciously couch the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the spirit of the Second World War, and their strong focus on the supposed infiltration of external threats into the country," the officials added.

Newsweek contacted the Russian defense ministry by email for comment.

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