Separate units were tracking foreigners arriving in the USSR – tourists, journalists, students, specialists in various fields, participants in sports and cultural events. Each of them was seen as a potential agent of the foreign special services. Foreigners were accommodated in special hotels and restaurants with hidden surveillance equipment and KGB-trained staff and were allowed to visit only in authorised areas. KGB agents monitored what the foreigners filmed and photographed, what objects were of interest to them, and with whom among the local population they communicated. They were checked to make sure they were not bringing or distributing banned literature.

Embassies of ‘capitalist’ countries and their staff were under continuous surveillance. Diplomatic immunity was a very favourable cover for intelligence activities, and embassies often became the main centres of intelligence. Own nationals who had established or were attempting to establish contacts with foreigners were subject to checks. Persons wishing to flee abroad and thus ‘betray their homeland’ were actively sought out and punished with the harshest penalties. The anti-Soviet press smuggled into the Soviet Union was searched for (what security officials called the fight against the enemy’s ‘ideological diversion’), its channels of entry were investigated, and those involved in distribution were caught. Foreign radio stations were also listened to, and the content of broadcasts was transcribed, translated into Russian and analysed. Considerable attention and effort were devoted to the protection of industrial enterprises, scientific institutions and transport areas which were related to the USSR defence industry, or which might have been important in a military conflict. Objects related to the army and military industry were concealed, their real purpose and production were disguised.