Overview
- The 22nd Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Security Agencies and Intelligence Services of the CIS member states opened in St. Petersburg on Friday with Russia hosting and chairing the session.
- SVR Director Sergey Naryshkin warned that the range and scale of global and local threats is growing and that faster information sharing is essential to avoid rapid negative developments in crisis zones.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a greeting read by Igor Rudenya that urged improving forms and methods of cooperation between CIS intelligence services to counter common external threats.
- Delegations from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan attended the opening, which focused on discussion and professional exchange rather than announcing joint operations.
- The conference is a recurring institutional forum used to deepen ties and coordinate responses across post‑Soviet security services, and closer data exchange could speed member states' crisis responses and affect regional border and security measures.