 Putin's security chiefs recreate smersh organization to hunt down spies. Vladimir Putin's counterintelligence bosses have recreated the smersh organization to hunt down spies targeting Russia according to United Kingdom defense chiefs. They stressed that this was an example of the Russian authorities consciously couching the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the spirit of the Second World War according to the Evening Standard. They added that it also highlighted their strong focus on the supposed infiltration of external threats into the country. Putin has sought to turn the narrative of his Ukraine war launched in February 2022 into a conflict with the enemy West. As his soldiers struggle to gain ground with largely static front lines, the Russian president is seeking to galvanize support for his invasion by portraying it as a fight against NATO countries. He has sought to justify it as countering a threat to Russia as Moscow and other cities have come under attack from Ukrainian drones. In London, the Ministry of Defense said in its latest intelligence update. In late 2023, Russian politicians claimed that the Soviet counterintelligence organization Smersh was being re-established. In early January 2024, an open source image showed operatives apparently wearing Smersh uniform patches. An abbreviation of the Russian phrase for death to spies, Joseph Stalin established the original organization which existed from 1941 to 1946. In the West, it became known via its fictionalized portrayal in Ian Fleming's James Bond books.