How the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS), established in 1925 for propaganda purposes, was transformed in 1958 into the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (SSOD), in 1992 into the Russian Association for International Cooperation (RAMC), which in the same year established the Russian Agency for International Cooperation and Development (RAMSiR) (already an official state agency), which in turn was transformed in 1994 first into Roszarubezhcentre, and then in 2008 into Rossotrudnichestvo, as mentioned earlier. All of these were internal restructuring processes within state security agencies, first Soviet and then Russian. 
Thus, there are currently two organisations that are direct successors to VOKS: Rossotrudnichestvo and RAMS. 
The Russian Association for International Cooperation, which continues to masquerade as a civil society organisation, has, of course, lost its significance compared to the days of the SSOD. At that time, virtually all the legal international activities of the Soviet secret services centred on the numerous ‘friendship societies with the USSR’, comprising foreign agents of influence and Soviet secret service officers. In the post-Soviet era – as the number of Soviet émigrés grew – the role of the old networks of influence, made up of ‘friends of Russia’, began to wane. The scope of the new network of émigré associations proved to be much broader. Yet the old structures were preserved wherever possible. 
During the Soviet era, the ‘Friendship Societies’ brought together more than 25,000 different enterprises and institutions, including scientific, cultural, educational and academic bodies, and so on. Over 50 million people were involved in the work of the SSOD. Republican branches of the SSOD operated in all the union republics, organising tens of thousands of events each year dedicated to foreign countries, their history, science and art, as well as anniversaries and commemorative dates, and expressing solidarity with the peoples of foreign countries. Around 2,000 events were held annually at the Moscow House of Friendship.
The SSOD maintained contacts with 7,500 organisations, public figures and representatives of science and culture from 134 countries. There were 108 public associations and institutes of friendship with the USSR operating around the world. 
Of course, 50 million people is a Soviet exaggeration, but the network of agents operating under the name ‘friendship societies’ was indeed vast. 
RAMS currently has 104 members – “friendship societies with various countries, as well as other organisations whose aim is to promote peace and friendship with all nations, to harmonise international relations on the basis of the convergence and interpenetration of cultures and economies, and to achieve harmony and ensure mutual understanding between peoples”.  
RAMS has been led successively by Valentina Tereshkova, Eleonora Mitrofanova, Farit Mukhametshin, Georgy Muradov and Sergei Stepashin (2013). All of them, with the exception of Tereshkova, were high-ranking diplomats, whilst Stepashin was also a former director of the FSB. For all of them, this role was a sideline, a sort of public service. 
In September 2015, Sergei Vyacheslavovich Kalashnikov, a member of the LDPR and first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Industry, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship, took over as head of RAMS. Judging by the fact that Kalashnikov (born in 1951) is a qualified psychologist who graduated from Leningrad State University in 1975, from 1985 to 1988 he held the post of head of department at the Ministry of Defence Industry of the USSR, in 1988 he graduated from the Academy of National Economy, and in 1997 from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has direct links to the security services and was being prepared for work abroad.  
The Deputy Chair of the RAMS Presidium is Georgy Muradov, a figure familiar to us. 
The Secretary-General of RAMS is Vladimir Mikhailovich Polozkov, a graduate (1982) of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University (a training ground for intelligence service personnel, much like MGIMO).  Polozkov’s biography is described very briefly: ‘He began his career as executive secretary of the Soviet societies for friendship and cultural ties with Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. For over 30 years, he held various civil service posts in the field of international cooperation, including through public diplomacy channels. He oversaw the activities of Soviet and Russian cultural and educational institutions in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and India…. He was responsible for developing a network of Russian science and culture centres abroad and for drafting the relevant intergovernmental agreements. By the nature of his work, he actively collaborated with Russian and foreign NGOs. ”.  The management of Soviet and Russian cultural institutions abroad is a typical cover for intelligence service officers.
The visible part of RAMS’s activities, as reflected on its website, is limited to holding various kinds of ceremonial meetings with foreigners and signing cooperation agreements. One can only speculate about the invisible part, which is not at all difficult. 

The RAMS website lists 115 members, of which around 70 are ‘friendship societies’ with various countries, whilst the rest are a wide variety of rather curious Russian organisations – ranging from the International Academy of People’s Diplomacy to the ‘Dialogue of Abrahamic Civilisations’ Research Institute. 
It is clear that all these ‘friendship societies’, just as in Soviet times, are established, run and funded by Moscow, and their foreign members are Moscow’s agents. 
RAMS’s objectives are described on its website in the usual nonsensical manner – ‘Developing public diplomacy – Strengthening friendly ties with the peoples of foreign countries and seeking new forms of cooperation with the international community – Promoting comprehensive exchanges in the fields of culture, science, education and sport – Encouraging the study and popularisation of the Russian language abroad – Coordination of the activities of the public associations that make up the Association – Comprehensive support for and development of ties with compatriots abroad – Dissemination of Russia’s historical, philosophical, scientific, technical, academic and cultural ideas abroad…’ and so on. If any meaningful activity is taking place there at all, it is solely through the security services.