GRU
GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye or Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff) is the military intelligence main directorate of the Red Army, which handles military espionage while the KGB reports to the government. Actual GRU activity in the Nordic countries is meager: a few agents go around gathering intelligence, disguised in a similar manner as KGB operatives. A company-sized sabotage unit, SSD-200, is based in Narvik. Its task is to interfere with the rebuilding of Norway. An equivalent unit, known as SSD-352, operates in Denmark, often in collaboration with raiders.
Structure: Field agents report to General Valnikov, who relays the information to the USSR. SSD-200 receives its orders directly from Valnikov, but SSD-352 is largely independent and has refused an evacuation order. Valnikov has more immediate concerns than an insane commander of unit 352, nor does he much care if the Danish Army grinds him and a handful of Spetsnaz into mincemeat.
Leaders: Colonel Uri Pavlovich Valnikov is the GRU commander in the Nordic lands and directly responsible to Soviet HQ. His closest subordinate is Major Konstantin Mikoyan, whereas SSD-200 is commanded by Colonel Mikhail Govorov. SSD-352 is commanded by the unseemly Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Rokov.
KGB/GRU relations
Relations between the KGB and GRU in the Nordic countries are extremely bad. The GRU, overshadowed by the KGB before the war, is now practically the only intelligence service in the region, and it has some fine feathers on its cap, such as the seizure of northern Norway in 2000. Both organizations hate each other and their rivalry has sometimes even escalated into assassinations. At the moment the GRU is ever more boldly pushing off the KGB and its men from an influential position.
KGB/military relations
Relations between the KGB border guards and the Red Army can be regarded as cold at best. The Army regards the border guards as a band of rear echelon bandits who do nothing but steal supplies and sell them on the black market. The average Russian has always considered the militsiya as their enemy, and border guards are even worse than that as far as the soldiers are concerned.
For their part, the border guards consider the Army to be a bunch of cry-babies who don’t do anything but complain about everything. As most border guards are chosen from amongst the most politically reliable, they tend to regard themselves as better than Red Army troops.
These attitudes have sometimes led to extreme violence…
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