Yuri Georgiyevich Kobaladze (Юрий Георгиевич Кобаладзе, born 1949) is a retired Russian intelligence officer who served as head of the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) for about eight years after the Soviet collapse, making him the public face of Russian foreign intelligence in the 1990s. A 1972 graduate of MGIMO, he worked for the KGB’s First Chief Directorate and spent several years in London as a correspondent for Soviet State Television and Radio (Gostelradio), a standard cover posting for intelligence officers.

He retired from the SVR as a major general. In January 1999 Kommersant reported he was leaving to become first deputy chairman of the state broadcaster VGTRK. He later worked in corporate communications, including at the retailer X5 Retail Group, appeared as a commentator on Ekho Moskvy, and from 2014 to 2023 was deputy dean of international journalism at MGIMO, leaving in November 2023 after inviting television host Ivan Urgant to lecture. The Moscow Times in 2010 corrected a column that had wrongly described him as a former head of the SVR; he headed its press service.

Sources

• Gevorkyan, Natalia. “Yuri Kobaladze: davaite podozhdem naznacheniya.” Kommersant, January 21, 1999.
• “Yuri Kobaladze uvolen iz MGIMO posle priglasheniya Ivana Urganta.” Radio Svoboda, November 15, 2023.
• “Correction.” The Moscow Times, November 16, 2010.

Summary entry. A fuller, document-based profile is in preparation.