The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
[ rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ции, r=Glavnoje upravlenije General'nogo shtaba Vooruzhonnykh sil Rossiyskoy Federatsii] formerly the Main Intelligence Directorate,
[( rus, Гла́вное разве́дывательное управле́ние, r=Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye, p=ˈɡlavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə)] and still commonly known by its previous abbreviation GRU,
[ rus, ГРУ, p=ɡiˈru] is the foreign
military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
agency of the
General Staff
A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...
of the
Armed Forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
of the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. The GRU controls the military intelligence service and
maintains its own special forces units.
Unlike Russia's other
security and intelligence agencies—such as the
Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the
Federal Security Service
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) RF; rus, Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ России), Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Feder ...
(FSB), and the
Federal Protective Service (FSO), whose heads report directly to the
president of Russia
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
—the director of the GRU is subordinate to the Russian military command, reporting to the
Minister of Defence
A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...
and the
Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff.
List
* Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (United States)
* Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia)
* Chief of General Staff (Afg ...
.
The directorate is reputedly Russia's largest foreign-intelligence agency, and is distinguished among its counterparts for its willingness to execute riskier "complicated, high stakes operations". According to unverified statements by
Stanislav Lunev
Stanislav Lunev (russian: Станислав Лунев; born 1946 in Leningrad) is a former Soviet military officer, the highest-ranking GRU officer to defect from Russia to the United States.
Biography
Stanislav Lunev was born in Leningrad, to ...
, a defector from the GRU, in 1997 the agency deployed six times as many agents in foreign countries as the SVR, and commanded some 25,000
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz are special forces in numerous post-Soviet states. (The term is borrowed from rus, спецназ, p=spʲɪtsˈnas; abbreviation for or 'Special Purpose Military Units'; or .)
Historically, the term ''spetsnaz'' referred to the So ...
troops.
History
Origins and early history
![The Russian Federation General staff GRU big emblem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/The_Russian_Federation_General_staff_GRU_big_emblem.jpg)
The first Russian body for military intelligence dates from 1810, in the context of the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
raging across Europe, when
War Minister
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly
Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly (german: Fürst Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly; baptised – ) was an Imperial Russian soldier of Baltic German and Scottish origin, who was commander-in-chief and Minister of War of the Russian Empire ...
proposed to Emperor
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.
The son of ...
the formation of the Expedition for Secret Affairs under the War Ministry (russian: Экспедиция секретных дел при военном министерстве); two years later, it was renamed the Special Bureau (russian: Особая канцелярия).
In 1815, the Bureau became the First Department under the General Chief of Staff. In 1836, the intelligence functions were transferred to the Second Department under the General Chief of Staff. After many name-changes through the years, in April 1906, the Military intelligence was carried out by the Fifth Department under the General Chief of Staff of the War Ministry.
The GRU's first predecessor in Soviet Russia was established by the secret order signed on 5 November 1918 by
Jukums Vācietis
Jukums Vācietis (russian: Иоаким Иоакимович Вацетис, link=no, ''Ioakim Ioakimovich Vatsetis''; 11 November 1873 – 28 July 1938) was a Latvian Soviet military commander. He was a rare example of a notable Soviet leader w ...
, the first
commander-in-chief of the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
(RKKA), and by
Ephraim Sklyansky
Ephraim Markovich Sklyansky (russian: Эфраим Маркович Склянский) ( – August 27, 1925) was a Soviet revolutionary and statesman. He was one of the founders of the Red Army, an associate of Leon Trotsky, and a major contrib ...
, deputy to
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
, the civilian leader of the Red Army.
[Для выяснения намерений враждебных государств…](_blank)
(''tr. "To ascertain the intentions of hostile states..."'') ''Krasnaya Zvezda
''Krasnaya Zvezda'' (russian: Кра́сная звезда́, literally "Red Star") is the official newspaper of the Soviet and later Russian Ministry of Defence. Today its official designation is "Central Organ of the Russian Ministry of Defen ...
'', 19 October 2019. (Since 2006, the Russian Federation has officially observed the date of 5 November as the
professional holiday of military intelligence in Russia.)
[ rus, День военного разведчика] The military
human intelligence
Human intelligence is the intellectual capability of humans, which is marked by complex cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. High intelligence is associated with better outcomes in life.
Through intelligence, humans ...
service thus established was originally known as the Registration Agency (''Registrupravlenie'', or ''Registrupr''; rus, Региструпр) of the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic;
Simon Aralov was its first head.
Its early history was marked by a series of reorganisations influenced by the
Soviet-Polish War, the consolidation and restablisation of the Soviet Union, and the general reorganisation of the Red Army; this included changes to its name, status, and responsibilities.
The first head of the Fourth Directorate was
Yan Karlovich Berzin
Yan (Ian) Karlovich Berzin (russian: Ян Карлович Берзин; lv, Jānis Bērziņš; real name Pēteris Ķuzis; , Kreis Riga (now in Zaube parish), the Russian Empire – 29 July 1938, Moscow, the USSR), was a Latvian Soviet communi ...
, who remained in the post from March 1924 until April 1935 (in 1938, he was arrested and executed as a
Trotskyite
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an Orthodox Marxism, orthod ...
during the
Stalinist purges
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
). Military intelligence was known for its fierce independence from the rival
"internal intelligence organizations", such as the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
, and later
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
; however, public statements of Soviet military intelligence veterans state the Fourth Directorate, and later GRU, had always been operationally subordinate to the KGB.
Military intelligence was headquartered in a small and nondescript complex west of the Kremlin, whereas the NKVD was in the very centre of Moscow, next to the building that housed
People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs The People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (NKID or the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs) was the state body of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR and the Soviet Union responsible for conducting the foreign policy of ...
at the bottom of
Kuznetsky Most
Kuznetsky Most ( rus, Кузне́цкий Мост, p=kʊˈzʲnʲet͡skʲɪj ˈmost) is a street in central Moscow, that runs from Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street to Lubyanka Street. The name, literally ''Blacksmith's Bridge'', refers to the 18th- ...
.
Consequently, Soviet military intelligence came to be known in Soviet diplomats'
cant
Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to:
Language
* Cant (language), a secret language
* Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers
* Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers
* Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...
as ''distant neighbours'' ( rus, дальние соседи) as opposed to the ''near neighbours'' of the NKVD/KGB.
Leonid Mlechin
Leonid Mlechin (Russian: Леони́д Миха́йлович Мле́чин; born June 12, 1957, Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian journalist, international observer, moderator of the "special file" of "TV Center", and two-time winner of TEFI (200 ...
Дальние соседи
argumenti.ru, 15 November 2018.
Cold War
The GRU was created under its current name and form by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
in February 1942, less than a year after the
invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany. From April 1943 the GRU handled human intelligence exclusively outside the USSR. In addition to operations against the Axis powers, GRU is credited with having infiltrated the British nuclear weapon programme and up to 70 American government and scientific institutions.
During the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, the GRU, like many of its Western rivals, maintained
''rezidenturas'', or resident spies, worldwide; these included both "legal" agents, based at Soviet embassies with
official diplomatic cover, and
"illegal" officers
without cover. It also maintained a
signals intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...
(SIGINT)
station in Lourdes, Cuba and other
Soviet-bloc countries. Though less well known than the KGB, with which it shared a fierce rivalry, GRU is known to have been involved in several high-profile episodes; this included opening backchannel negotiations with the U.S. government during the
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...
and contributing to the
Profumo scandal
The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler begi ...
that partly contributed to the fall of a British administration.
GRU was distinguished for its "closer ties with revolutionary movements and terrorist groups, greater experience with weapons and explosives, and even tougher training for recruits"; new recruits were allegedly shown footage of a traitorous officer being fed into a crematorium alive.
The existence of the GRU was not publicized during the Soviet era, though it was mentioned in the 1931 memoirs of the first
OGPU
The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...
defector,
Georges Agabekov
Georges Sergeevich Agabekov (original family name Arutyunov; russian: Георгий Серге́евич Агабеков, transliteration Georgiĭ Sergeevich Agabekov) (1896–1937) was a Soviet Red Army soldier, Chekist, OGPU agent and Chief ...
, and described in detail in the 1939 autobiography, ''I Was Stalin's Agent,'' by
Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact after he defected to ...
, the most senior Red Army intelligence officer ever to defect. GRU became widely known in Russia, and outside narrow confines of the Western
intelligence community, during ''
perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
'', due partly to the writings of "
Viktor Suvorov
Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (russian: link=no, Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov () is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World ...
" (
Vladimir Rezun
Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (russian: link=no, Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov () is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World ...
), a GRU officer who defected to
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
in 1978 and wrote about his experiences in the Soviet military and intelligence services. According to Suvorov, even the
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...
, the country's ''de facto'' leader, needed to undergo a security screening to enter GRU headquarters.
Post-Soviet period
Following the
dissolution of the USSR
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
in December 1991, the GRU continued as an important part of Russia's intelligence services, especially since it was the only one to more or less maintain operational and institutional continuity:
the KGB had been dissolved after aiding a
failed coup in 1991 against the then Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
. It is now succeeded by the
Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the
Federal Security Service
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) RF; rus, Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ России), Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Feder ...
(FSB).
Evidencing its growing strategic profile, in 2006 the GRU moved to a new headquarters complex at , which cost 9.5 billion rubles to build and incorporates 70,000 square meters. In April 2009, President
Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
fired then-GRU head
Valentin Korabelnikov
Army General Valentin Vladimirovich Korabelnikov (russian: Валентин Владимирович Корабельников, born January 4, 1946, in Tambov Oblast, Soviet Union) is a Russian general, best known for being the longest serving ...
, who had headed the GRU since 1997, reportedly over Korabelnikov's objections to proposed reforms.
Pursuant to these reforms, the following year, the official name of the unit was changed from "GRU" to the "Main Directorate of the Russian General Chief of Staff", or "G.U."; however, "GRU" continues to be commonly used in media.
The GRU underwent severe reductions in funding and personnel following the 2008
Russo-Georgian War
The 2008 Russo-Georgian WarThe war is known by a variety of other names, including Five-Day War, August War and Russian invasion of Georgia. was a war between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of Sou ...
, during which it failed to discover the more advanced anti-aircraft weapons obtained by Georgia. However, it continued to play a key role in several Russian operations, including in
Russia's intervention in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and the subsequent
annexation of Crimea.
GRU agents were also implicated in numerous cyberwarfare operations across the West, including in the U.S., France, and Germany.
Many of its successes took place during the tenure of
Igor Sergun
Igor Dmitrievich Sergun ( rus, И́горь Дми́триевич Сергу́н, p=ˈiɡərʲ ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ sʲɪrˈɡun; 28 March 1957 – 3 January 2016) was Director of GRU, Russia's military intelligence service, from 2011 until ...
, who headed the service from late 2011 until his death in early January 2016. Sergun's sudden death shortly after the restoration of the GRU's influence led to speculations of foul play by Russian adversaries.
The tenure of Sergun's successor,
Igor Korobov, was marked by what some news media construed as multiple high-profile setbacks, such as the thwarted
2016 coup d'état attempt in
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
, the failed
2018 Salisbury poisoning, and an unprecedented number of disclosed GRU agents.
Korobov died on 21 November 2018, "after a serious and prolonged illness", according to the official Defence Ministry statement.
His death provoked speculations and unverified reports of him having fallen ill in October that year following a harsh dressing-down from President
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
.
However, former CIA station-chief Daniel Hoffman cautioned in 2017 that some of the Russian intelligence's recent operations that appeared to be botched might have been intended for discovery. Similarly, in 2019,
Eerik-Niiles Kross
Eerik-Niiles Kross (born 8 September 1967) is an Estonian politician, diplomat, former chief of intelligence and entrepreneur. He is a member of parliament (Riigikogu). During the 1980s, Kross was a prominent figure in the anti-Soviet non-violen ...
, a former Estonian intelligence official, opined that GRU's apparent sloppiness "has become part of the
psychological warfare
Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...
. It's not that they have become that much more aggressive. They want to be felt. It's part of the game."
On 2 November 2018, while marking the GU's 100th anniversary, President Putin proposed restoring the agency's former name: Главное разведывательное управление (GRU).
Organizational structure
1997 organization
The GRU is organized into numerous directorates, directions, and sections.
According to the data available in open sources in 1997, the structure of the Main Directorate consists of at least 12 known directorates and several other auxiliary departments.
* The First Directorate is responsible for intelligence in Europe.
* The Second Directorate is geographically responsible for the Western Hemisphere.
* The Third Directorate is geographically responsible for Asia.
* The Fourth Directorate is geographically responsible for Africa and the Middle East.
* The Fifth Directorate is responsible for
military operations
A military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations may ...
intelligence, including naval and air force intelligence.
* The Sixth Directorate is responsible for
signals intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...
(SIGINT) and space intelligence. It uses over 20 different types of aircraft, a fleet of 60 SIGINT collection vessels, satellites, and ground stations to collect signals intelligence. Together with
FAPSI
FAPSI (russian: ФАПСИ) or Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information (FAGCI) (russian: Федеральное Агентство Правительственной Связи и Информации) was a Russian governmen ...
, the GRU operates SIGINT collection facilities in over 60 diplomatically protected facilities throughout the world. These agencies also operate ground collection facilities within former Soviet states' territory.
* The Seventh Directorate is responsible specifically for
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
.
* The Eighth Directorate deals with special purpose administration.
* The Ninth Directorate is responsible for military technology.
* The Tenth Directorate is the department of
war economics.
* The Eleventh Directorate is the department of strategic doctrines and arms.
* The Twelfth Directorate is responsible for
information warfare
Information warfare (IW) (as different from cyber warfare that attacks computers, software, and command control systems) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a ...
.
2020 organization
The American
Congressional Research Service
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a c ...
, based on interviews with various experts, gives the following organization of the GRU, although it acknowledges that the organization's true structure is "a closely guarded secret."
4 Regional Directorates:
* First Directorate:
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
* Second Directorate:
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
, the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
* Third Directorate:
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
* Fourth Directorate:
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
11 Mission-Specific Directorates:
* Fifth Directorate:
Operational Intelligence
Operational intelligence (OI) is a category of real-time dynamic, business analytics that delivers visibility and insight into data, streaming events and business operations. OI solutions run queries against streaming data feeds and event data to ...
* Sixth Directorate:
Electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
/
Signals intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...
**GRU
cyber capabilities, Unit 26165 (allegedly the hacking group
Fancy Bear
Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 (by Mandiant), Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group (by Kaspersky), Sednit, Tsar Team (by FireEye) and STRONTIUM (by Microsoft)) is a Russian cyber espionage group. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said with a medium level ...
/
APT
Apt. is an abbreviation for apartment.
Apt may also refer to:
Places
* Apt Cathedral, a former cathedral, and national monument of France, in the town of Apt in Provence
* Apt, Vaucluse, a commune of the Vaucluse département of France
* A ...
28/STRONTIUM), and Unit 74455 (allegedly the
Sandworm Team
Sandworm also known as Unit 74455, is allegedly a Russian cybermilitary unit of the GRU, the organization in charge of Russian military intelligence. Other names, given by cybersecurity researchers, include Telebots, Voodoo Bear, and Iron Vikin ...
)
* Seventh Directorate:
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
* Eight Directorate: Russian
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz are special forces in numerous post-Soviet states. (The term is borrowed from rus, спецназ, p=spʲɪtsˈnas; abbreviation for or 'Special Purpose Military Units'; or .)
Historically, the term ''spetsnaz'' referred to the So ...
(
special forces
Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
)
* Ninth Directorate:
Military technology
Military technology is the application of technology for use in warfare. It comprises the kinds of technology that are distinctly military in nature and not civilian in application, usually because they lack useful or legal civilian application ...
* Tenth Directorate: Military economy
* Eleventh Directorate:
Strategic doctrine
* Twelfth Directorate:
Information Operations
Information Operations is a category of direct and indirect support operations for the United States Military. By definition in Joint Publication 3-13, "IO are described as the integrated employment of electronic warfare (EW), computer network ...
(separate from American
information operations
Information Operations is a category of direct and indirect support operations for the United States Military. By definition in Joint Publication 3-13, "IO are described as the integrated employment of electronic warfare (EW), computer network ...
)
* Space Intelligence Directorate
* Operational and Technical Directorate
* External Relations Department
Units
Unit 29155
Unit 29155
Unit 29155 is a Russian (GRU) unit tasked with foreign assassinations and other activities aimed at destabilizing European countries. The unit is thought to have operated in secret since at least 2008, though its existence only became publicly kno ...
is tasked with foreign assassinations and other covert activities aimed at destabilizing European countries.
The Unit is thought to have operated in secret since at least 2008, though its existence only became publicly known in 2019.
It is commanded by Maj. Gen. and based at the headquarters of the 161st Special Purpose Specialist Training Center in eastern Moscow.
Its membership included decorated veterans from the Soviet
war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to:
*Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC)
*Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709)
*Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...
and Russia's
most recent series of
wars in Chechnya and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. It has been linked to the
2014 Russian annexation of Crimea
In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War.
The events in Kyiv th ...
, the 2015
poisoning
A poison can be any substance that is harmful to the body. It can be swallowed, inhaled, injected or absorbed through the skin. Poisoning is the harmful effect that occurs when too much of that substance has been taken. Poisoning is not to ...
s of
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
n
arms dealer
The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and servi ...
Emilian Grebev (also spelled Emilyan), the
2016 Montenegro coup attempt, and the
poisoning of Russian defector Sergei Skripal. Unit 29155 operatives have also been tracked to
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
during the time (early 2018) other GRU units hacked the
World Anti-Doping Agency
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key ...
(then investigating
state-sponsored doping by Russian Olympians) and attempted to hack the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which entered into force on 29 April 1997. The OPCW, with its 193 member ...
(then investigating the
Douma chemical attack
On 7 April 2018, a chemical warfare attack was carried out by forces of the government of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian city of Douma. Medics and witnesses reported that it caused the deaths of between 40 and 50 people and injuries to possi ...
by Russia-backed
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
and evidence in the Skripal case).
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
has also investigated the travel of Unit 29155 member Denis Sergeev (who has also used the name Sergei Fedotov) to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
in 2017 around the time of the
2017 Catalan independence referendum
An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Autonomous communities of Spain, Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and cal ...
.
[ The unit is also accused of being behind the alleged ]Russian bounty program
The Russian bounty program is an alleged project of Russian military intelligence to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American and other allied service members during the war in Afghanistan. The existence of the alleged prog ...
where Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
militants were paid to kill American troops, although the program's existence is uncertain, unproven, and unverified.[
]
Unit 54777
Unit 54777
Unit 54777 (also known as the 72nd Special Service Center) is a Russian GRU unit reportedly responsible for psychological operations. Unit 54777 retains several front organizations, including InfoRos and the Institute of the Russian Diaspora. The u ...
, alternately called the 72nd Special Service Center,[ is one of the GRU's primary ]psychological warfare
Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...
capabilities. Unit 54777 retains several front organizations
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...
, including InfoRos and the Institute of the Russian Diaspora. The unit originated from Soviet GLAVPUR
The Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Soviet Navy (russian: Главное политическое управление Советской армии и Военно-морского флота СССР, Glavnoe politicheskoe upra ...
(''Glavnoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie'', or the Main Political Department) and was created in early 1990s and notably employed colonel Aleksandr Viktorovich Golyev, whose memoirs were published in 2020 along with other GRU documents. In the 1990s, the unit focused on pro-Soviet disinformation in newly split republics such as Lithuania and Chechnya. In later years the unit covered a broad range of activities from running NGOs targeting Russian expatriates in Western countries (InfoRos, Institute of the Russian Diaspora, World Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad, Foundation for Supporting and Protecting the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad) and manipulating public opinion in Russia and abroad in preparation for armed conflicts such as in Georgia, Donbas or Syria.
Unit 26165
Unit 26165
Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 (by Mandiant), Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group (by Kaspersky Lab, Kaspersky), Sednit, Tsar Team (by FireEye) and STRONTIUM (by Microsoft)) is a Russian Cyber spying, cyber espionage group. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike ...
, also known as Fancy Bear, STRONTIUM, and APT28, is a cyber operations
Cyberwarfare is the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes. As a major developed economy, the United States i ...
/ hacking group. Unit 26165 was originally created during the Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
as the 85th Main Special Service Center, responsible for military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...
.[ The ]Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
has accused Unit 26165 of also being involved in the attempted 2018 OPCW
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which entered into force on 29 April 1997. The OPCW, with its 193 member ...
hack and targeting its investigation into the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian forces on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. Cont ...
(MH17), for which the Dutch investigation blames pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists armed with surface-to-air missiles
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
by Russia.
Unit 74455
Unit 74455
Sandworm also known as Unit 74455, is allegedly a Russian Cyberwarfare, cybermilitary unit of the GRU (G.U.), GRU, the organization in charge of Russian military intelligence. Other names, given by cybersecurity researchers, include Telebots, Vo ...
, also known as the Sandworm Team or the Main Center for Technologies, used various fictitious online identities (DCLeaks
DCLeaks (also known as DC Leaks) was a website that was established in June 2016. It was responsible for publishing leaks of emails belonging to multiple prominent figures in the United States government and military. Cybersecurity research firms d ...
and Guccifer 2.0
"Guccifer 2.0" is a persona which claimed to be the hacker(s) who gained unauthorized access to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer network and then leaked its documents to the media, the website WikiLeaks, and a conference event. S ...
) to coordinate the release of the politically sensitive stolen documents with WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...
for "maximum political impact" starting on the eve of the 2016 Democratic National Convention
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
. Its guilt has been reported by American media and a Senate Intelligence Committee
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of ...
investigation. In October 2020, the United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
indicted six Unit 74455 GRU officers for multiple cyberattacks, including the December 2015 Ukraine power grid cyberattack
On December 23, 2015, the power grid in two western oblasts of Ukraine was hacked, which resulted in power outages for roughly 230,000 consumers in Ukraine for 1-6 hours. The attack took place during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War (2014-present) ...
, the 2017 Macron e-mail leaks
The 2017 Macron e-mail leaks were leaks of more than 20,000 e-mails related to the campaign of Emmanuel Macron during the 2017 French presidential elections, two days before the final vote. The leaks garnered an abundance of media attention du ...
, the 2017 NotPetya attacks, the 2018 Winter Olympics hack (for which the GRU attempted to frame North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
), several 2018 attacks on Skripal case investigators, and a 2018–2019 cyberattack
A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...
campaign against Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
media and the Georgian Parliament
The Parliament of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს პარლამენტი, tr) is the supreme national legislature of Georgia. It is a unicameral parliament, currently consisting of 150 members; of these, 120 are proportio ...
.[
]
SATCOM
Since the mid-1970s the GRU has maintained a satellite communications
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...
interception post near Andreyevka, located approximately from Spassk-Dalny
Spassk-Dalny (russian: Спасск-Да́льний), sometimes called simply Spassk, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Primorsky Krai, Russia, situated on the Prikhankayskaya Flatland on the coast of Khanka Lake.
Geography
T ...
, Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of the ...
.
GRU illegals
According to a Western assessment of the GRU seen by Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
in the autumn of 2018, the GRU had a long-running program to run 'illegal' spies, i.e. those who work without diplomatic cover and who live under an assumed identity in foreign countries for years. The assessment said: "It plays an increasingly important role in Russia's development of Information Warfare (both defensive and offensive). It is an aggressive and well-funded organization which has the direct support of – and access to – President Vladimir Putin, allowing freedom in its activities and leniency with regards to diplomatic and legislative scrutiny."
The United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
alleges that the GRU, as well as the SVR (its civilian foreign intelligence counterpart), makes use of both legal
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
(intelligence officers with diplomatic protection/official government roles) and illegal operatives.[
]
Special Forces of the Main Directorate
Commonly known as the ''Spetsnaz GRU
Spetsnaz GRU or Spetsnaz G.U. (formally known as Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces () is the special forces (''spetsnaz'') of the G.U., the foreign military-intelligence agency of the Armed ...
'', it was formed in 1949. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
in 1991, the Spetsnaz GRU remained intact as part of the Russian GRU until 2010, when it was reassigned to other agencies. In 2013, however, the decision was reversed and Spetsnaz GRU units were reassigned to GRU divisions and placed under GRU authority again.
Education
GRU officers train at a Ministry of Defence
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
military academy at 50 Narodnoe Opolchenie Street, with intelligence agents receiving additional training at the Cherepovets Higher Military School of Radio Electronics. The A.F. Mozhaysky Military-Space Academy
A.F. Mozhaysky's Military-Space Academy (russian: Федеральное государственное казённое военное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального обр ...
has also been used to train GRU officers.
Activities by country
According to the Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who wo ...
: "Though sometimes compared to the US Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence.
A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the I ...
, he GRU's
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
activities encompass those performed by nearly all joint US military intelligence agencies as well as other national US organizations. The GRU gathers human intelligence
Human intelligence is the intellectual capability of humans, which is marked by complex cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. High intelligence is associated with better outcomes in life.
Through intelligence, humans ...
through military attaches and foreign agents. It also maintains significant signals intelligence (SIGINT
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...
) and imagery reconnaissance (IMINT
Imagery intelligence (IMINT), pronounced as either as ''Im-Int'' or ''I-Mint'', is an intelligence gathering discipline wherein imagery is analyzed (or "exploited") to identify information of intelligence value. Imagery used for defense intelli ...
) and satellite imagery capabilities." Soviet GRU Space Intelligence Directorate had put more than 130 SIGINT satellites into orbit. GRU and KGB SIGINT network employed about 350,000 specialists.[ Christopher Andrew and ]Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (russian: link=no, Васи́лий Ники́тич Митро́хин; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was a major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Dir ...
(2000). ''The Mitrokhin Archive
The "Mitrokhin Archive" is a collection of handwritten notes which were secretly made by the KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin during the thirty years in which he served as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Direc ...
: The KGB in Europe and the West''. Gardners Books. .
Austria
On 9 November 2018 Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
Sebastian Kurz (; born 27 August 1986) is a former Austrian politician who twice served as chancellor of Austria, initially from December 2017 to May 2019 and then a second time from January 2020 to October 2021.
Kurz was born and raised in Me ...
said that a 70-year-old retired army colonel, identified only as "Martin M." was believed to have spied for Russia for years. The officer in question, whose name was not disclosed and who might have been approached under a false flag
A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...
, was reported to have been engaged in selling official secrets to his GRU handlers from 1992 until September 2018. In July 2019, Austria's Ministry of the Interior
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
confirmed that the colonel's handler was a Moscow-born GRU officer Igor Egorovich Zaytsev, a Russian national, for whom an international arrest warrant had been issued.
Bulgaria
An investigation by Bellingcat
Bellingcat (stylised as bellngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014 ...
and ''Capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
'' identified GRU officer Denis Vyacheslavovich Sergeev (using the alias Sergey Vyacheslavovich Fedotov) as a suspect in the 2015 poisoning of Bulgarian businessman Emiliyan Gebrev (''Емилиян Гебрев'') in Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
, following an attack that mirrored the techniques used in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
On 4 March 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent for the British intelligence agencies, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were poisoned in the city of Salisbury, England. According to UK sources and the Organis ...
. That attack has been specifically tied to Unit 29155
Unit 29155 is a Russian (GRU) unit tasked with foreign assassinations and other activities aimed at destabilizing European countries. The unit is thought to have operated in secret since at least 2008, though its existence only became publicly kno ...
. Three individuals were charged in absentia by the Bulgarians in January 2020.
In March 2021, six Bulgarian nationals alleged to be members of a GRU spy ring operating in Bulgaria were arrested in Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
.
Canada
The GRU received intelligence from Jeffrey Delisle
Jeffrey Paul Delisle (born March 30, 1971) is a former Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy who passed sensitive information from the top-secret STONEGHOST intelligence sharing network to the Russian spy agency GRU. Delisle's actions have ...
of the Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...
, leading to the expulsion of several Russian Embassy staffers, including the defence attaché to Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
.
Colombia
In December 2020, Migración Colombia
Colombia Migration ( es, Migración Colombia) is Colombia's border control agency responsible for monitoring and conducting migratory control within the framework of national sovereignty and in accordance with the law.
History
After the dissoluti ...
confirmed the expulsion of two Russian diplomats accused of espionage. One of the assailants was identified as Aleksandr Nikolayevich Belousov who, according to the National Intelligence Directorate of Colombia, is a GRU officer that had been credited by the Russian Embassy in Bogotá as a secretary. Nikolayevich, along with an SVR officer, had reportedly tried to gather intelligence on the country's electricity infrastructure on behalf of Venezuela's Maduro
Maduro is a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Politicians
* Conrad Maduro (), British Virgin Islands politicians and party leader
* Nicolás Maduro (born 1962), Venezuelan president
* Nicolás Maduro Guerra (born 1990), Venezuelan ...
government.
Czech Republic
On 17 April 2021, the Czech Republic announced its intelligence agencies had concluded that GRU officers, namely members of Russian military intelligence GRU's unit 29155
Unit 29155 is a Russian (GRU) unit tasked with foreign assassinations and other activities aimed at destabilizing European countries. The unit is thought to have operated in secret since at least 2008, though its existence only became publicly kno ...
, were involved in two massive ammunition depot explosions in Vrbetice (part of Vlachovice), near the Czech-Slovak border, in October 2014. The explosions killed two persons and "inflicted immense material damage, seriously endangered and disrupted the lives of many local residents", according to the Czech prime minister.
Estonia
In 2007, Deniss Metsavas, a Lasnamäe
Lasnamäe is the most populous administrative district of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The district's population is about 119,000, the majority of which is Russian-speaking. Local housing is mostly represented by 5–16 stories high panel blo ...
-born member of the Estonian Land Forces
The Estonian Land Forces ( et, Maavägi), unofficially referred to as the Estonian Army, is the name of the unified ground forces among the Estonian Defense Forces where it has an offensive military formation role. It is currently the largest ...
, was targeted with a honey trapping
Honey trapping is an investigative practice involving the use of romantic or sexual relationships for interpersonal, political (including state espionage), or monetary purpose. The ''honey pot or trap'' involves making contact with an individua ...
operation while visiting Smolensk
Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest c ...
. He was subsequently blackmailed into providing information to GRU handlers. His father, Pjotr Volin, was also recruited by GRU agents as leverage against Deniss, and would serve as a courier for classified information.
In May 2017, Russian citizen Artem Zinchenko was convicted of spying on Estonia for the GRU. In 2018, Zinchenko was traded
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
back to Russia in exchange for Raivo Susi, an Estonian imprisoned for espionage. In 2022, Zinchenko fled Russia to seek asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
...
in Estonia, citing personal opposition to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
.
On 5 September 2018, Major Deniss Metsavas and Pjotr Volin were charged with giving classified information to the GRU The two were convicted in February 2019.
Finland
In September 2018, Finnish police ran a large scale operation against numerous sites owned by Airiston Helmi Oy company that over years accumulated land plots and buildings close to nationally significant key straits, ports, oil refineries and other strategic locations as well as two Finnish Navy vessels. The security operation was run in parallel in multiple locations, involving Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, local police, Tax Administration, Border Guard, and Finnish Defence Forces. During the operation, a no-fly zone was declared over Turku Archipelago where key objects were located. While official cause given for the raid was multi-million euro money laundering and tax fraud, media speculated that the company had been a cover for GRU preparing infrastructure for a surprise attack on Finnish locations in case of a conflict situation.
France
Viktor Ilyushin, a GRU operative working as an Air Force deputy attaché, was expelled from France in 2014 for attempted espionage of the staff of François Hollande
François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...
.
In August 2015, a GRU unit posing as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
supporters called CyberCaliphate took TV5Monde
TV5Monde (), formerly known as TV5, is a French public television network, broadcasting several channels of French-language programming. It is an approved participant member of the European Broadcasting Union.
The network is available across ...
offline for approximately 18 hours.
GRU's APT – Fancy Bear
Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 (by Mandiant), Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group (by Kaspersky), Sednit, Tsar Team (by FireEye) and STRONTIUM (by Microsoft)) is a Russian cyber espionage group. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said with a medium level ...
used fake Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
accounts to pose as associates of Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...
's campaign staff, with the goal of interfering with the 2017 French presidential election
The 2017 French presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (EM) and Marine Le Pen of the Nationa ...
. Georgy Petrovich Roshka, a member of the GRU's Unit 26165 was involved in the theft of Macron's emails, and subsequent distribution via WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...
.
In December 2019, ''Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' reported that the joint effort by British, Swiss, French and U.S. intelligence agencies had discovered an apparent "rear base" of GRU in southeastern France, which was presumably used by GRU for the clandestine operations carried out throughout Europe. Investigators had identified 15 agents – all of them members of GRU's Unit 29155
Unit 29155 is a Russian (GRU) unit tasked with foreign assassinations and other activities aimed at destabilizing European countries. The unit is thought to have operated in secret since at least 2008, though its existence only became publicly kno ...
– who visited Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè d'Amont'' or ''Hiôta-Savouè''; en, Upper Savoy) or '; it, Alta Savoia. is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is ...
in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (ARA; ; frp, Ôvèrgne-Rôno-Ârpes; oc, Auvèrnhe Ròse Aups; it, Alvernia-Rodano-Alpi) is a region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Au ...
, region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
of France from 2014 to 2018, including Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov
Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga (russian: Анатолий Владимирович Чепига, born 5 April 1979) is a colonel in the Russian General Staff's Main Directorate (also known as GRU), the military intelligence service of the Russ ...
, who are believed to be behind the poisoning of the former GRU colonel and British double agent Sergei Skripal
Sergei Viktorovich Skripal ( rus, Серге́й Ви́кторович Скрипáль, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ skrʲɪˈpalʲ; born 23 June 1951) is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent f ...
in Salisbury in 2018.
Georgia
During the 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy
The 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy began when the Government of Georgia arrested four Russian officers on charges of espionage, on September 27, 2006. The Western and Georgian media sources report that relations between the two po ...
, four officers working for the GRU Alexander Savva, Dmitry Kazantsev, Aleksey Zavgorodny and Alexander Baranov were arrested by the Counter-Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and were accused of espionage
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
and sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
. This spy network was managed from Armenia by GRU Colonel Anatoly Sinitsin. A few days later the arrested officers were handed over to Russia through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Spetsnaz GRU
Spetsnaz GRU or Spetsnaz G.U. (formally known as Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces () is the special forces (''spetsnaz'') of the G.U., the foreign military-intelligence agency of the Armed ...
unit No. 48427, an airborne unit, participated in the Russo-Georgian War
The 2008 Russo-Georgian WarThe war is known by a variety of other names, including Five-Day War, August War and Russian invasion of Georgia. was a war between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of Sou ...
.
Germany
The 2015 Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
hack was attributed by German intelligence to the GRU. In 2020, Germany issued an arrest warrant for Dmitry Badin, a GRU officer and Unit 26165/Fancy Bear
Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 (by Mandiant), Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group (by Kaspersky), Sednit, Tsar Team (by FireEye) and STRONTIUM (by Microsoft)) is a Russian cyber espionage group. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said with a medium level ...
member also accused of involvement in the 2015–2016 DNC hacks in the United States, alleging he played a leading role in the Bundestag hack.
In 2018, German officials reported a key data network used by the Chancellery, ministries, and Parliament had been breached. German media attributed the attack to a Russian Government-sponsored hacking group, either Snake/Ouroborus or Fancy Bear.
In February 2021, Germany charged German citizen Jens F., a worker whose company maintained Bundestag electrical equipment, with espionage, accusing him of providing the building's floor plans to GRU operatives in the Russian embassy
This is a list of diplomatic missions of Russia. These missions are subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Russian Federation has one of the largest networks of embassies and consulates of any country. Russia has significant ...
in 2017. The suspect was a former army officer allegedly linked to the Stasi
The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990.
The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...
in the 1980s.
In September 2021, the German foreign ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
warned Russia against the continuation of a pre-election cyberattack
A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...
campaign targeting German legislators, claiming it had "reliable information" linking the Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...
group behind the attacks to the GRU. The prosecutor general
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
later opened an investigation into the affair.[
]
Japan
In September 2000, Japan expelled Captain Viktor Bogatenkov, a military attaché at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo, on allegations of espionage. Bogatenkov was a GRU agent who received classified information from Shigehiro Hagisaki
(born 1962 in Kyoto) is a former Lieutenant Commander in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Maritime Self-Defense Force of Japan. He was found guilty of selling military secrets to Russia.
Hagisaki worked at the National Institute for Defe ...
(萩嵜 繁博), a researcher at the National Institute for Defense Studies.
Latvia
In early 2018, an investigation by Russian opposition site Mbk.media alleged then- first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Latvia Roman Tatarka was a GRU operative and former classmate of Anatoly Chepiga
Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga (russian: Анатолий Владимирович Чепига, born 5 April 1979) is a Colonel (Eastern Europe), colonel in the Russian General Staff's Main Directorate (also known as GRU), the military intell ...
.
In October 2018, Latvia's Constitution Protection Bureau accused Russia of conducting a years-long phishing
Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwar ...
campaign targeting "state institutions, including the foreign and defense sectors."
Lithuania
In 2012, GRU officer Sergey Moiseyenko recruited Lithuanian Air Force
The Lithuanian Air Force or LAF ( lt, Lietuvos karinės oro pajėgos, abbreviated as ''LK KOP'') is the military aviation branch of the Lithuanian armed forces. It is formed from professional military servicemen and non-military personnel. Units ...
officer Sergej Pusin to conduct espionage on Lithuanian and NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
military operations. Pusin additionally passed personal files on various military officers. Moiseyenko was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to 10.5 years in prison, but was pardon
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the ju ...
ed and returned to Russia by President Nausėda as part of a trilateral prisoner exchange
A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, dead bodies are involved in an exchange.
Geneva Conventions
Under the Geneva Convent ...
with Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
and Russia in 2019.
Mexico
In March 2022, General Glen VanHerck of United States Northern Command
United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is one of eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense. The command is tasked with providing military support for non-military authorities in the U.S., and protect ...
testified that "the largest portion of the GRU members is in Mexico right now" seeking "opportunities to...influence nd access theU.S." Mexican President López Obrador
López is a surname of Spanish origin.
It was originally a patronymic, meaning "Son of Lope", ''Lope'' itself being a Spanish given name deriving from Latin ''lupus'', meaning "wolf". Its Portuguese and Galician equivalent is '' Lopes'', its It ...
downplayed the allegation, emphasizing Mexican sovereignty and stating his country " id notget involved in spionage
''Espionage'' (German: ''Spionage'') is a 1955 Austrian historical spy drama film directed by Franz Antel and starring Ewald Balser, Barbara Rütting and Gerhard Riedmann.Fritsche p.256 It was shot at the Sievering Studios and on location in Vien ...
"
Moldova
In June 2017, Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
expelled five Russian GRU operatives with diplomatic cover
In espionage, an official cover operative is one who assumes a position in an organization with diplomatic ties to the government for which the operative works such as an embassy or consulate. This provides the agent with official diplomatic immu ...
from the Russian Embassy in Chisinau, as they were believed to be attempting to recruit fighters from Gagauzia
Gagauzia or Gagauz-Yeri, or ; ro, Găgăuzia; russian: Гагаузия, Gagauziya officially the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia; ro, Unitatea Teritorială Autonomă Găgăuzia, ''UTAG''; russian: Автономное территор ...
to fight in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin
Grigory Borisovich Karasin (russian: Григорий Борисович Карасин; born 23 August 1949) is a Russian career diplomat who formerly served as a State Secretary and a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
Career
...
rejected the allegations.
Montenegro
The two Russian nationals indicted by Montenegrin prosecution as the organisers of the attempted coup d'état in Montenegro in October 2016 are believed to be GRU officers.[Russia 'linked' to election-day coup plot in Montenegro](_blank)
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
, 21 February 2017.[Indictment tells murky Montenegrin coup tale: Trial will hear claims of Russian involvement in plans to assassinate prime minister and stop Balkan country's NATO membership.](_blank)
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
, 23 May 2017. One of them, Eduard Vadimovich Shishmakov ("Shirokov") had been officially identified as GRU in October 2014, when Shishmakov, who then held the position of a deputy military attaché at the Russian embassy in Poland, was declared persona non grata
In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution.
Diplomacy
Under Article 9 of the ...
by the Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
government.
The Netherlands and Switzerland
In mid-September 2018 the Swiss press reported that two men allegedly working for the GRU had been arrested in The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
, the Netherlands in the spring that year, after the Salisbury poisoning incident, for planning to hack the computer systems of the Spiez Laboratory
The Spiez Laboratory (German: ''Labor Spiez'', French: ''Laboratoire de Spiez'', Italian: ''Laboratorio Spiez'') is the Swiss institute for the protection of the population against nuclear, biological and chemical threats and dangers. It is p ...
, a Swiss institute analyzing chemical weapon attacks for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which entered into force on 29 April 1997. The OPCW, with its 193 member ...
(OPCW). In early October 2018, the government of the Netherlands announced they had arrested four GRU operatives on 13 April: Aleksei Morenets, Evgenii Serebriakov, Oleg Sotnikov, and Aleksey Minin. The Russians allegedly attempted to launch a major "close access" cyberattack against the headquarters of the OPCW in the Hague and also intended to travel onwards to the Spiez laboratory in Switzerland, which was testing Novichok
Novichok (russian: Новичо́к, lit=newcomer, novice, newbie) is a group of nerve agents, some of which are binary chemical weapons. The agents were developed at the GosNIIOKhT state chemical research institute by the Soviet Union and Ru ...
samples from Salisbury at the time. Investigation conducted by open-source intelligence
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of data gathered from open sources (covert and publicly available sources) to produce actionable intelligence. OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforcement, and busi ...
outlets in the aftermath of the Dutch government's revelations that used Russian road police databases led to identification of further 305 GRU officers whose private cars were registered at GRU headquarters in Moscow. GRU officer Denis Vyacheslavovich Sergeev has also been documented as operating in Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
and Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
.
Alleged attempt to infiltrate International Criminal Court
In June 2022, the Dutch AIVD
The General Intelligence and Security Service ( nl, Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst, AIVD; ) is the intelligence and security agency of the Netherlands, tasked with domestic, foreign and signals intelligence and protecting national se ...
stated that GRU intelligence officer Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, under the alias of Viktor Muller Ferreira, was denied entry to the Netherlands after arriving for an internship with the International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...
. The AIVD described Cherkasov as a deep-cover illegal
Illegal, or unlawful, typically describes something that is explicitly prohibited by law, or is otherwise forbidden by a state or other governing body.
Illegal may also refer to:
Law
* Violation of law
* Crime, the practice of breaking the ...
, publishing a document he is alleged to have written in 2010 reminding himself of his cover identity. As Ferreira, Cherkasov is alleged to have attended university in the United States and Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
, building a cover identity for years as a Brazilian national with an interest in international affairs. AIVD head described the attempted infiltration as a "long-term, multi-year GRU operation that cost a lot of time, energy and money," calling it a "high-level threat."
Norway
In December 2020, the Norwegian Police Security Service
The Norwegian Police Security Service (, ) is the police security agency of Norway. The agency was previously known as ''POT'' (' or Police Surveillance Agency), the name change was decided by the Parliament of Norway on 2 June 2001.
History an ...
(PST) stated that hackers linked to Fancy Bear
Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 (by Mandiant), Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group (by Kaspersky), Sednit, Tsar Team (by FireEye) and STRONTIUM (by Microsoft)) is a Russian cyber espionage group. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said with a medium level ...
and the GRU's 85th Special Services Center (GTsSS) were likely responsible for a breach of the Storting
The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...
's email system earlier in the year. The Russian Embassy in Norway denied the claims.
In October 2022, the PST arrested and charged Russian citizen Mikhail Valerievich Mikushin with "illegal espionage against state secrets." Mikushin had posed as a Brazilian academic named Jose Assis Giammaria and was, at the time of his arrest, researching Norwegian Arctic policy and hybrid threats at the University of Tromsø
The University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway (Norwegian: ''Universitetet i Tromsø – Norges arktiske universitet''; Northern Sami: ''Romssa universitehta – Norgga árktalaš universitehta'') is a state university in Norway an ...
. Bellingcat
Bellingcat (stylised as bellngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014 ...
investigator Christo Grozev
Christo Grozev (; born 20 May 1969) is a Bulgarian investigative journalist and author. He is the lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat, focusing on security threats, extraterritorial clandestine operations, and the weaponization of informatio ...
identified Mikushin as a GRU colonel while the Russian embassy in Norway denied any knowledge of Mikushin, calling his arrest a part of "spy mania."
Poland
In June 2014, Poland expelled Russian deputy military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...
Eduard Shishmakov (alias Eduard Shirokov) and three other Russian citizens accused of spying over a 2014 wiretap scandal involving the publication of wiretapped conversations between senior Polish officials. Shishmakov, an accused GRU operative, later became a key suspect in the 2016 Montenegrin coup allegations
A coup d'état in the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica was allegedly planned and prepared for 16 October 2016, the day of the parliamentary election, according to Montenegro's special prosecutor. In September 2017, the trial of those indicted in c ...
.
In October 2014, Poland arrested two alleged GRU spies. Polish Lt. Col. Zbigniew J. worked for the GRU for "several years" feeding information on unit morale and troop movements while lawyer-lobbyist Stanisław Szypowski influenced governmental circles and sought a job in the Economy Ministry while providing information on the energy sector
The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy indust ...
. Both met with GRU operatives under official cover
In espionage, an official cover operative is one who assumes a position in an organization with diplomatic ties to the government for which the operative works such as an embassy or consulate. This provides the agent with official diplomatic immu ...
in Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and were monitored by Polish counterintelligence.
In July 2019, a Warsaw court sentenced former Economy Ministry employee Marek W. to three years in prison for passing classified information on the energy sector
The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy indust ...
to the GRU from 2015 to 2016.
In May 2020, Polish journalists, supported by former intelligence officials, accused the GRU of conducting a 700-email bomb threat campaign against Polish schools as part of a hybrid warfare
Hybrid warfare is a theory of military strategy, first proposed by Frank Hoffman, which employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare, and cyberwarfare
with other influencing methods, such as fake news
Fake ne ...
strategy. Polish and Russian intelligence services did not comment on the accusations.
In March 2022, the Polish Internal Security Agency
The Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego (ABW), officially the Internal Security Agency (ISA) in English, is Poland's domestic counter-intelligence agency. The ABW is responsible for analyzing, reporting and preventing threats to Poland's inter ...
(ABW) arrested reporter Pablo Gonzalez, whom they identified as "an agent of the RU" as he planned to cross the Polish-Ukrainian border. Gonzalez, a Spanish citizen of Russian origin, was found with two passports of different names and detained on suspicion of espionage. The ABW accused Gonzalez of " arryingout activities for Russia using his journalistic status" and traveling to worldwide zones of conflict and political instability.
In January 2023, Warsaw authorities arrested a Russian and a Belarusian national. The SKW, Poland's military counterintelligence
Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...
agency, accused the pair of spying on Polish military facilities for the GRU since 2017.
Qatar
On 13 February 2004, in Doha
Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...
, two Russian men assassinated Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, an exiled leader of Chechen rebels and former President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
The president of Ichkeria, formally the president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was the head of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 1991 to 2007, the Islamic Republic that existed until the victory of the Russian Federation in the Secon ...
, in a car-bombing. Yandarbiyev's son was also killed. Anatoly V. Belashkov and Vasily A. Bogachyov, thought to be GRU members, were found guilty of the murder by a Qatari criminal court, which said the men had acted under direct orders from the Russian leadership. A third suspected GRU agent, posted as first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
, was arrested but released to his diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country. . Those sentenced were sent to Russia to serve their sentences but disappeared shortly after.[
]
Russia
Dmitry Kozak
Dmitry Nikolayevich Kozak ( rus, Дмитрий Николаевич Кóзак, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ kˈozak, uk, Дмитро Миколайович Козак; born 7 November 1958) is a Russian politician who has served ...
and Vladislav Surkov
Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov (russian: Владислав Юрьевич Сурков; born 21 September 1962 or 1964) is a Russian politician and businessman. He was First Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration from 1999 to 201 ...
, members of the Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
administration, reportedly served in the GRU. Two Chechens, Said-Magomed Kakiev
Said-Magomed Shamaevich Kakiyev (russian: Саид-Магомед Шамаевич Какиев, also spelled Kakiev; born 22 February 1970) is a colonel in the Russian Army, who was the leader of the GRU Spetsnaz Special Battalion Zapad ("West ...
and former warlord
A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...
Sulim Yamadayev
Suleiman Bekmirzayevich Yamadayev (; 21 June 1973 – 30 March 2009) was a Chechen rebel commander from the First Chechen War who had switched sides together with his brothers Dzhabrail, Badrudi, Isa and Ruslan in 1999 during the outbreak ...
were commanders of Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad
Special Battalions ''Vostok'' and ''Zapad'' (russian: Специальные батальоны "Восток" и "Запад", lit. "East" and "West") were two Spetsnaz GRU, Spetsnaz units of the GRU, the military intelligence agency of Russia, ...
("East" and "West") that were controlled by the GRU. The battalions each included close to a thousand fighters until their disbandment in 2008.
Approximately 300 commandos, intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way a ...
s and other GRU personnel died during the fighting in Chechnya.
GRU detachments from Chechnya
Chechnya ( rus, Чечня́, Chechnyá, p=tɕɪtɕˈnʲa; ce, Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), officially the Chechen Republic,; ce, Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the ...
were transferred to Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
independently of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...
after the 2006 Lebanon War
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, ''Ḥarb Tammūz'') and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, ''Milhemet Leva ...
.
GRU officers have also been accused of creating criminal death squads
A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are ...
.[Special services are making teams for extrajudicial punishment (Russian)](_blank)
by Igor Korolkov, ''Novaya Gazeta
''Novaya Gazeta'' ( rus, Новая газета, t=New Gazette, p=ˈnovəjə ɡɐˈzʲetə) is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Mo ...
'', 11 January 2007
English translation
/ref>
Slovakia
In early 2022, Slovakia arrested four Slovak nationals described as a "Russian spying network eekinginformation about NATO and Ukraine." Two were charged with spying and bribery, with Slovak authorities alleging undercover
To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an indi ...
GRU officers at the Russian Embassy paid tens of thousands of euros for the "highly sensitive" information about Slovakia, the Slovak military, and NATO. The men charged were a Slovak military academy rector and disinformation blogger; the other two were released without charge.
Slovenia
In January 2023, the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency arrested and charged two individuals in Ljubljana
Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center.
During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...
with espionage on behalf of the GRU and using false documents. Both were reportedly operating under assumed identities with ties to Argentina. Media variously described those charged as either a husband and wife or two men.
Spain
According to reporting by Bellingcat
Bellingcat (stylised as bellngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014 ...
, ''El País
''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...
'' and the Civica Media Foundation, the Audiencia Nacional
The Audiencia Nacional (; en, National Court) is a centralised court in Spain with jurisdiction over all of the Spanish territory. It is specialised in a certain scope of delinquency, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those ...
is investigating a GRU group known as Unit 29155
Unit 29155 is a Russian (GRU) unit tasked with foreign assassinations and other activities aimed at destabilizing European countries. The unit is thought to have operated in secret since at least 2008, though its existence only became publicly kno ...
and its operations in Spain. GRU members Denis Sergeev, Alexey Kalinin and Mikhail Opryshko are reported to have been operating in Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
around the time of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum
An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Autonomous communities of Spain, Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and cal ...
.
Sweden
In late 2021, Swedish authorities arrested brothers Peyman and Payam Kia for aggravated espionage on behalf of the GRU. Peyman had worked with the Swedish Security Service
The Swedish Security Service ( sv, Säkerhetspolisen , abbreviated SÄPO ; until 1989 ''Rikspolisstyrelsens säkerhetsavdelning'', abbreviated RPS/Säk) is a Swedish government agency organised under the Ministry of Justice. It operates as a se ...
and Swedish Armed Forces
The Swedish Armed Forces ( sv, Försvarsmakten, "the Defense Force") is the government agency that forms the armed forces of Sweden, tasked with the defense of the country as well as with promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting internati ...
; both brothers were jailed in January 2023.
Syria
The Sixth Directorate was responsible for maintaining the Center S
Center S (Центр С in Cyrillic script) was a secret, joint, Russian–Syrian signals intelligence 'spy' post near al-Harra in southwestern Syria close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Presumably existing since before 2006, it was ov ...
covert listening post in Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
prior to its loss to the Free Syrian Army
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...
in 2014. The Sixth Directorate also operates a signals intelligence listening post at Hmeimim Air Base near Latakia
, coordinates =
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, elevation_m = 11
, elevation_ft =
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, postal_code =
, area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41
, geocode ...
.
In 2015 GRU special forces soldiers have reportedly appeared in Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
and Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
. GRU officials have also visited Qamishli
Qamishli ( ar, ٱلْقَامِشْلِي, Al-Qāmišlī, ku, قامشلۆ, Qamişlo, syc, ܒܝܬ ܙܠܝ̈ܢ, Bēṯ Zālīn, lit=House of Reeds or syr, ܩܡܫܠܐ, translit=Qamishlo) , near the border with Turkey.
Turkey
In 2018 the Turkish government published CCTV videos from assassination of a Chechen commander Abdulvahid Edelgiriev, who was killed in 2015 in Istanbul, claiming the perpetrator was the same person as Anatoliy Chepiga
Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga (russian: Анатолий Владимирович Чепига, born 5 April 1979) is a colonel in the Russian General Staff's Main Directorate (also known as GRU), the military intelligence service of the Russ ...
("Ruslan Boshirov") from Skripal assassination in UK.
Ukraine
The Spetsnaz GRU
Spetsnaz GRU or Spetsnaz G.U. (formally known as Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces () is the special forces (''spetsnaz'') of the G.U., the foreign military-intelligence agency of the Armed ...
were involved in the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War.
The events in Kyiv th ...
and in the war in Donbas
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
. During the November 2018, Kerch Strait incident
The Kerch Strait incident was an international incident that occurred on 25 November 2018 in the Kerch Strait, during which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels after they ...
, the GRU's Unit 54777 sent text messages
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible compute ...
to Ukrainian men in the border region calling on them to report for military service.
News media
The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include news agencies, print media (newspapers, news magazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and th ...
and private cybersecurity
Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...
firms allege that the GRU hacked the computer networks
A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ma ...
of Ukrainian energy company Burisma
Burisma Holdings Limited ( uk, Бурісма Холдингс) is a holding company for a group of energy exploration and production companies. It is registered in Limassol, Cyprus, but based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Burisma Holdings has operated in t ...
, a key player in the 2020 Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory
A series of false claims are centered on the baseless allegation that while Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, he engaged in corrupt activities relating to the employment of his son, Hunter Biden, by the Ukrainian gas compan ...
.[
Spetsnaz GRU are involved in the ]2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
. Their first reported casualty was Captain Alexey Gluschak, killed in action in Mariupol on 8 March.
United Kingdom
In September 2018 the Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...
formally named two Russian nationals, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov (the names used by the men when entering the UK), as suspected perpetrators of the assassination attempt of the former GRU officer Sergei Skripal
Sergei Viktorovich Skripal ( rus, Серге́й Ви́кторович Скрипáль, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ skrʲɪˈpalʲ; born 23 June 1951) is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent f ...
and his daughter in March 2018. As part of the charge announcement Scotland Yard released a detailed track of the individuals' 48 hours in the UK. This covered their arrival in the UK at Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...
, trip to Salisbury the day before the attack, trip to Salisbury on the day of the attack and return to Moscow via Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
. The two men stayed both nights in the City Stay Hotel on Bow Road
Bow Road is a thoroughfare in Bow, London, England. The road forms part of the A11, running from Aldgate to Norwich in Norfolk. To the west the road becomes Mile End Road, and to the east is Bow Interchange on the A12.
The College of Tec ...
, East London and Novichok agent
Novichok (russian: Новичо́к, lit=newcomer, novice, newbie) is a group of nerve agents, some of which are binary chemical weapons. The agents were developed at the GosNIIOKhT state chemical research institute by the Soviet Union and Ru ...
was found in their room after police sealed it off on 4 May 2018. British Prime Minister Theresa May told the Commons the same day that the suspects were part of the G.U. intelligence service (formerly known as GRU) and the assassination attempt was not a rogue operation and was "almost certainly" approved at a senior level of the Russian state.
As a side effect of the Skripal poisoning investigation, Russian and Western media reported conclusions made by open-source intelligence
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of data gathered from open sources (covert and publicly available sources) to produce actionable intelligence. OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforcement, and busi ...
outlets that claimed that GRU operatives were issued Russian foreign travel passports with certain characteristics that would allow their tentative identification. Through further research, in the autumn of 2018, "Boshirov" was publicly exposed as Anatoliy Chepiga
Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga (russian: Анатолий Владимирович Чепига, born 5 April 1979) is a colonel in the Russian General Staff's Main Directorate (also known as GRU), the military intelligence service of the Russ ...
, a decorated GRU officer, and "Petrov" as Alexander Mishkin
Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin (russian: Алекса́ндр Евге́ньевич Ми́шкин) is a doctor in the Russian General Staff's Main Directorate (also known as GRU), the military intelligence service of the Russian Federation.
O ...
.
United States
GRU officer Stanislav Lunev
Stanislav Lunev (russian: Станислав Лунев; born 1946 in Leningrad) is a former Soviet military officer, the highest-ranking GRU officer to defect from Russia to the United States.
Biography
Stanislav Lunev was born in Leningrad, to ...
, who defected to the U.S. in 1992 while he was posted in Washington under the cover of a TASS news agency correspondent, in the 1990s publicized his claims that small nuclear weapons that could be fit into a knapsack or a briefcase or suitcase had been secretly pre-positioned in the U.S. and other countries around the world to be used for sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
by Russia's agents in the event of war. U.S. Congressman
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
Curt Weldon
Wayne Curtis Weldon (born July 22, 1947) is an American politician. He served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, representing the 7th district of Pennsylvania. He was defeated in November 2006 ...
pursued these claims publicly while admitting that they had been found largely spurious by the FBI. Searches of the areas identified by Lunev – who admitted he had never planted any weapons in the US – have been conducted, "but law-enforcement officials have never found such weapons caches, with or without portable nuclear weapons".
Electoral interference
On 29 December 2016 the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
sanctioned the nine entities and individuals, including the GRU as well as the FSB, for their alleged activities to disrupt and spread disinformation during the 2016 US presidential election
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
. In addition, the United States State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
also declared 35 Russian diplomats and officials ''persona non grata
In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution.
Diplomacy
Under Article 9 of the ...
'' and denied Russian government officials access to two Russian-owned installations in Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
and New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.[ On 13 July 2018, an indictment to several GRU Staffers was issued. GRU Unit 26165 and Unit 74455 are alleged to be behind the ]DCLeaks
DCLeaks (also known as DC Leaks) was a website that was established in June 2016. It was responsible for publishing leaks of emails belonging to multiple prominent figures in the United States government and military. Cybersecurity research firms d ...
website, and were indicted for obtaining access and distributing information from data about 500,000 voters from a state election board website as well as the email accounts of John Podesta
John David Podesta Jr. (born January 8, 1949) is an American political consultant who has served as Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden for clean energy innovation and implementation since September 2022. Podesta previously served as White ...
, Hillary Clinton, and volunteers and employees of the United States Presidential Campaign of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is the United States Democratic Party, Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. The DCCC recruits candidates, raises ...
, and the Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
(DNC). According to information leaked by Reality Winner
Reality Leigh Winner (born December 4, 1991) is an American former enlisted US Air Force member and NSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for unauthorized release of government information to the media a ...
, the GRU attempted to hack the voting machine manufacturer VR Systems
VR Systems is a provider of elections technology systems and software. VR Systems is based in Tallahassee, Florida. The company's products are used in elections in eight U.S. states. The company was founded in 1992 by Jane and David Watson. The C ...
, as well as local election officials.
In July 2018 Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
Rod Jay Rosenstein (; born January 13, 1965) is an American attorney who served as the 37th United States deputy attorney general from April 2017 until May 2019. Prior to his appointment, he served as a United States attorney for the District ...
released an indictment returned by a grand jury charging twelve GRU officers with conspiring to interfere in the 2016 elections.
According to Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
VP Tom Burt, a GRU-run group dubbed Strontium (alternatively known as APT28, Sofacy, and Pawn Storm, and Fancy Bear) has been engaged in spear phishing attacks against at least three campaigns in the 2018 midterm elections
The 2018 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. These midterm elections occurred during Republican Donald Trump's term. Democrats made a net gain of 41 seats in the United States House of Representatives, gaining a majo ...
.
On 19 November 2021, the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in the United States (CCORC) or (KCOPC) closed and on 9 March 2022 Elena Branson was accused of working as a foreign agent by the FBI.
Directors
The Head of the Russian Military Intelligence is a military officer. He is the primary military intelligence adviser to the Russian Minister of Defense and to the Russian Chief of the General Staff and to a certain extent also answers to the President of Russia
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
if ordered so.
Gallery
File:Sergey Shoigu in GRU 01.jpg, Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu delivering a speech on Military Intelligence Day
File:Sergey Shoigu in GRU 03.jpg, Wreath laying ceremony for past GRU agents
File:Sergey Shoigu in GRU 04.jpg, Russian military leaders saluting a monument commemorating the GRU
File:Sergey Shoigu in GRU 05.jpg, 5th GRU chief Igor Sergun
Igor Dmitrievich Sergun ( rus, И́горь Дми́триевич Сергу́н, p=ˈiɡərʲ ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ sʲɪrˈɡun; 28 March 1957 – 3 January 2016) was Director of GRU, Russia's military intelligence service, from 2011 until ...
with Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov
File:Sergey Shoigu in GRU 06.jpg, Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu congratulates a GRU employee
File:Solemn event on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of GRU - 07.jpg, President Vladimir Putin addresses the GRU on its 100th anniversary
File:GRU emblem.svg, Logo used by the
File:Emblem in GRU 02.jpg, Emblem in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces
File:Great emblem of the 16th Guards Special Purpose Brigade.svg, Great emblem of the 16th Guards Special Purpose Brigade
See also
* Active measures
Active measures (russian: активные мероприятия, translit=aktivnye meropriyatiya) is political warfare conducted by the Soviet or Russian government since the 1920s. It includes offensive programs such as espionage, propaganda ...
* Farewell Dossier
The Farewell Dossier was the collection of documents that Colonel Vladimir Vetrov, a KGB defector "en place" (code-named "Farewell"), gathered and gave to the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST) in 1981–82, during the Cold War.
...
*
* Leopold Trepper
Leopold Zakharovich Trepper (23 February 1904 – 10 January 1982) was a Polish Communist and career Soviet agent of the Red Army Intelligence. With the code name Otto'','' Trepper had worked with the Red Army since 1930. He was also a resistance ...
, an organizer of the Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
spy
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
ring Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra) prior to World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
* Nuclear suitcase bomb
* Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
* Pavel Sudoplatov
Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov (russian: Пáвел Aнатóльевич Cудоплáтов; ua, Павло Анатолійович Судоплатов, translit=Pavlo Anatoliiovych Sudoplatov; July 7, 1907 – September 24, 1996) was a member ...
* SMERSH
SMERSH (russian: СМЕРШ) was an umbrella organization for three independent counter-intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially announced only on 14 April 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Josep ...
* Vatutinki
Vatutinki (russian: Вату́тинки) is a rural locality (a village) in Novomoskovsky Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia, located on the Desna River. Its population as of the 2010 Census was 11,081; up from ...
* Viktor Suvorov
Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (russian: link=no, Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov () is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World ...
* Vulkan files leak
Notes
References
External links
* Story by Daniel Turovsky
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...
, translation by Kevin Rothrock
''Meduza'' ( rus, Медуза, t=jellyfish) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent ''Lenta.ru'' news website. Free mo ...
. 6 November 2018
What is the GRU? Who gets recruited to be a spy? Why are they exposed so often? Here are the most important things you should know about Russia’s intelligence community
Meduza
''Meduza'' ( rus, Медуза, t=jellyfish) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent ''Lenta.ru'' news website. Free mob ...
.
Further reading
*Bowen, Andrew S. (2020
Russian Military Intelligence: Background and Issues for Congress
. Congressional Research Service. Washington, D.C.
*
*Suvorov, Viktor (1984). Inside Soviet Military Intelligence.
*Suvorov, Viktor (1986). Inside the Aquarium.
*Suvorov, Viktor (1988). Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces.
External links
* in the Russian Ministry of Defense
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (russian: Министерство обороны Российской Федерации, Минобороны России, informally abbreviated as МО, МО РФ or Minoboron) is the govern ...
website
{{Authority control
Foreign relations of Russia
Russian entities subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions
Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List
Defence agencies of Russia
Military intelligence agencies
1992 establishments in Russia
Government agencies established in 1992