GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye (Russian: Главное разведывательное управление, English: Main Intelligence Directorate) is the foreign military intelligence main directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (formerly the Soviet Army General Staff of the Soviet Union). "GRU" is the English transliteration of the Russian acronym ГРУ, which stands for "Главное Разведывательное Управление", meaning Main Intelligence Directorate. The official full name translation is Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is also known as GRU GSh (short for GRU Generalnovo Shtaba, or ГРУ Генерального штаба, i.e. "GRU of the General Staff").