It was during Soviet times. Now the FSB, GRU, and SVR are the main intelligence agencies in Russia.
To answer your question in a little more detail, the Russian intelligence agencies have a reputation of not fucking around. If you cross their path, they’re not afraid to torture or kill you. Western intelligence agencies have a reputation of being less brutal.
However, many of us know that western intelligence agencies are not Boy Scouts like they’d like us to believe. They conduct false flag operations, they traffic humans and drugs, and they’re involved in pedophilia, among other things. Russian agents aren’t saints, but I don’t believe they’re as demonic as their western counterparts
Time to sell Netflix stock if you’ve got it