Together with two Georgian organizations, the Eurasian Institute and the SIKHA Foundation, Russian KGB and FSB affiliated National Research Institute for Communication Development (NIIRK) co-organized a discussion on “Traditional Values as a Factor of Connecting Countries and People,” which was held on April 22 in Tbilisi at an undisclosed location, according to the agenda of the event published by the institute itself.
According to the announcement of the event Gulbaat Rtskhiladze, Director of the Eurasia Institute and Archil Sikharulidze, founder of the SIKHA Foundation Research Centre, were to address the conference participants. The Eurasia Institute and the SIKHA Foundation were listed as organizers of the conference on the Georgian side.
The discussion was organized within the framework of the conference “Russia and the World: Dialogues – 2024. Forces of Attraction”. “Foreign sessions” of the conference have already been held in Belarus, Tajikistan, and on April 19 in the Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region of Georgia where it was held under the theme of “The Role of the Partially Recognized States in the Modern World. Mechanisms of the Development of the Alliance Relations.” The conference will conclude with a key event in Moscow on 23 May.
The NIIRK was reportedly founded and is run by KGB and FSB veterans and works with Russian government agencies. According to the information on the independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo [“agency” in English], NIIRK’s director Vladislav Gasumyanov is a former KGB, FSB and Russian Foreign Intelligence Service officer. The same source says that the NIIRK was co-founded in 2020 by a former head of the 3rd KGB Division and former head of the Academy of Foreign Intelligence, Lieutenant General Nikolai Gribin. “In addition to Gasumyanov and Gribin, the supervisory board of the NIIKR includes three other former Soviet and Russian special services employees,” Agentstvo reports.
According to Agentstvo, in addition to Gasumyanov and Gribin, the NIIKR supervisory board includes other former members of the Soviet and Russian intelligence services, including former head of the Operational Information Department of the FSB’s 5th Service (in charge of FSB relations with foreign partners) Lieutenant General Anatoly Bolyukh, former deputy head of the FSB Counterintelligence Operations Directorate Lieutenant General Boris Miroshnikov, as well as former deputy director of the Federal Counterintelligence Service and former Secretary of the Russian Security Council Colonel General Valentin Sobolev.
The speakers in the session held in Tbilisi include Valentina Komleva, NIIKR’s deputy director; Evgeny Minchenko, President of Russian Association of Public Relations; Alexander Yakovlev, leading researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Evgenia Goryushina, researcher at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies.
Also Read: