In 1963, the first director of the CIA, Allen Dulles, described the Soviet KGB as “an instrument for subversion, manipulation and violence, for secret intervention in the affairs of other countries.”

That description applies equally well today to the Russian big three intelligence services: the SVR, the GRU, and the FSB. Dulles’s words bear remembering in light of the Guardian’s reporting on Thursday of a possible leak of Kremlin documents.