Ninth Chief Directorate

The Ninth Chief Directorate (also nicknamed Devyatka (Russian: девятка)) of the KGB was the organization responsible for providing bodyguard services to the principal Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) leaders (and families) and major Soviet government facilities (including nuclear-weapons stocks). It operated the Moscow VIP subway system, and the secure government telephone system linking high-level government and CPSU officers.

In mid-1992 the KGB's Ninth Directorate became the Main Guard Directorate (Glavnoye upravleniye okhraneniya, GUO) and in 1996 it was re-organized to the Federal Protective Service of Russia.