Answering questions from one of the opposition MPs in the Parliament on December 20, Armen Grigoryan, the Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic, stated that the Armenian government's project to create a foreign intelligence service is not associated with any foreign officials.

Armen Grigoryan was asked if the project to create a separate foreign intelligence structure for the country is connected with the recent visit to Yerevan by Richard Moore, the head of British Foreign Intelligence (MI6). Grigoryan recalled, "The draft on creating a new service was adopted at a government meeting held before this visit."

"It is not very logical to connect internal processes with any foreign officials in modern Armenia," he said. "Separation of foreign intelligence from the National Security Service (NSS) into a separate department is part of the reform of the security and intelligence agencies of the republic. Within its framework, the State Security Service was also separated from the National Security Service. The police and several other departments are now united into the Ministry of Internal Affairs," Grigoryan said.

Several post-Soviet countries left all intelligence functions in one structure, modeled on the Soviet KGB. In contrast, others separated it into separate departments. This approach has several advantages: you can be accountable directly to the country's leader," the Security Council Secretary explained.

"In order not to create disruptions in work, the foreign intelligence unit will continue to work in the NSS for three years, the functions of which will gradually be transferred to the new service. As for military intelligence, it remains under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense," Grigoryan said.