Russian President Vladimir Putin's former chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, says a report that the Kremlin plans to create a monolithic new security agency is false.
The newspaper Kommersant reported in September that Russia plans to establish a Ministry of State Security shaped around the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The report said the ministry would also comprise elements of the Federal Protection Service (FSO), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the National Guard.
The agency would effectively resemble the Soviet Union's KGB, it also said.
But in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper published on October 18, Ivanov called the report "100 percent fake."
He said the intelligence and counterintelligence services cannot operate under one command, and that the Federal Protection Service and National Guard have absolutely different tasks.
In August, Ivanov was relieved of his duties as Putin’s chief of staff. He is now the presidential envoy on environmental issues.