General of the Army Sergei Nikolaevich Lebedev is a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n political figure who has been the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States

Commonwealth of Independent States

The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....

 (CIS) since 2007. He was Director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service

Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is Russia's primary external intelligence agency. The SVR is the successor of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB since December 1991...

 (SVR) from 2000 to 2007.

Education

Lebedev graduated in 1970 from the Chernihiv

Chernihiv

Chernihiv or Chernigov is a historic city in northern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast , as well as of the surrounding Chernihivskyi Raion within the oblast...

 branch of Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

's Polytechnical Institute. A 1978 graduate (cum laude) of the Diplomatic Academy of the Soviet Foreign Ministry

Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

The Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation also known as State Educational Institution Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, is a diplomatic institution established in 1934 to teach and train the diplomatic and...

, Lebedev speaks German and English.

Career

Before intelligence work, Lebedev served in the Army during 1971-72. He began his career in 1975 when he joined the KGB

KGB

The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...

. He began duties in the First Chief Directorate

First Chief Directorate

The First Chief Directorate , of the Committee for State Security , was the organization responsible for foreign operations and intelligence collection activities by the training and management of the covert agents, intelligence collection management, and the collection of political, scientific and...

 (foreign intelligence) in 1975.

Lebedev was appointed as Director of the SVR on 20 May 2000. According to news reports, he was appointed to the post because President Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

 wanted "an intelligence chief whom he knows well and has confidence in." Putin and Lebedev met while serving in East Germany.

On 5 October 2007, Lebedev was elected the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States.