In May 1956 Sakharovsky was appointed head of First Chief Directorate of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of USSR, responsible for foreign operations and intelligence collection activities by the training and management of the covert agents, intelligence collection management, and the collection of political, scientific and technical intelligence. The first years of his tenure saw the creation of US military-political blocs, NATO, CENTO, SEATO; the Suez Crisis; the Hungarian uprising and the escalating crisis in Berlin. In 1957 Rudolf Abel, an illegal KGB technical agent posted in New York City was discovered by the FBI, in 1961 Konon Molody, another illegal spy, was uncovered in London by MI5.