4-12-21 “The availability of chemical, biological and nuclear weaponry means states and terrorists might inflict unthinkable damage disproportionate to their size and numbers.” -Nick Timothy, Theresa Mays former chief of staff https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1422043/russia-news-ukraine-conflict-world-war-3-crimea-donbass-vladimir-putin
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"There is unequivocal evidence about the involvement of officers of the Russian intelligence service GRU...in the explosion of the ammunitions depot (in Czech R. in 2014),” Prime Minister Andrej Babis told an unusual night news conference on April 17….On April 17, at the same time that Babis and Czech officials were announcing the findings of the depot explosion investigation, Czech police released a statement saying Mishkin and Chepiga had been in eastern Czech Republic (at location of arms depo on the day it exploded, then left for Vienna to fly to Moscow) in October 2014, around the time of the explosions, and said they were wanted for questioning….
Bilateral relations took a decided turn for the worse in early 2020, when Prague city officials dismantled a statue of a Russian World War II hero and renamed the square in front of the Russian Embassy after slain former Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov. The two countries exchanged heated rhetoric.
Bilateral relations took a decided turn for the worse in early 2020, when Prague city officials dismantled a statue of a Russian World War II hero and renamed the square in front of the Russian Embassy after slain former Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov. The two countries exchanged heated rhetoric.
https://www.rferl.org/a/czech-expulsions-bulgaria-gebrev-russia-gru-intelligence-explosion-spy-scandal/31209960.html
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Navalny's allies moved up their plans for what they hope will be the largest mass protests in modern Russian history, calling on people to gather across the country on April 21 before Navalny is harmed "irreparably." "Have you ever seen with your own eyes how a person is killed? You are seeing it right now. And no matter how much one wants to change the topic, it won't change the fact that Aleksei Navalny is being killed in a scary way in front of all of us," the protest announcement said…."If we keep quiet now...Russia will plunge into complete darkness. Peaceful political activity in Russia will become impossible," it added.
Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said on April 13 that his weight was down to 76 kilograms, 17 kilos less than when he entered the notorious Correctional Colony No. 2, about 100 kilometers from Moscow….The editorial also noted that more than 70 prominent international writers, artists and academics have signed a letter to Putin calling on him to ensure that Navalny receives the medical treatment to which he is entitled under Russian law. https://www.rferl.org/a/navalny-russia-biden-us-putin-hunger-strike/31209525.html
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Hidden behind concrete walls at headquarters of 161st Special Purpose Specialist Training Center in eastern Moscow, the unit sits within the command hierarchy of Russian military intelligence agency widely known as the G.R.U. officers from Unit 29155 travel to and from European countries. Some are decorated veterans of Russia’s bloodiest wars, including in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine. Its operations are so secret, according to assessments by Western intelligence services, that the unit’s existence is most likely unknown even to other G.R.U. operatives. The unit appears to be a tight-knit community. A photograph taken in 2017 shows the unit’s commander, Maj. Gen. Andrei V. Averyanov, at his daughter’s wedding in a gray suit and bow tie….
In 2006 Mr. Putin signed a law legalizing targeted killings abroad, the same year a team of Russian assassins used a radioactive isotope to murder Aleksander V. Litvinenko, another former Russian spy, in London. Unit 29155 is not the only group authorized to carry out such operations, officials said. The British authorities have attributed Mr. Litvinenko’s killing to the Federal Security Service .
A retired G.R.U. officer with knowledge of Unit 29155 said that it specialized in preparing for “diversionary” missions, “in groups or individually--bombings, murders, anything.” “They were serious guys who served there,” the retired officer said.
“They were officers who worked undercover and as international agents.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/world/europe/unit-29155-russia-gru.html
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The revelation that "Unit 29155" has used diplomatic passports from the Russian mission in Switzerland brought new scrutiny by European intelligence services tracking the unit's operatives. Intelligence services determined that Unit 29155's activities were being coordinated by a Russian official working in Geneva with diplomatic status under the name "Georgy Gorshkov." In late February, open-source researchers at Bellingcat working alongside Russian and Swiss journalists determined that Gorshkov been coordinating the unit's activities since arriving in Switzerland in 2017. Gorshkov, cover name of a GRU officer named Egor Gordienko. https://www.businessinsider.com/unit-29155-assassination-squad-diplomatic-russia-mission-switzerland-2020-3
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11-24-20 Growing out of the Soviet experience during the Russian Civil War, both the NKVD (a KGB precursor) and the GRU trained units in sabotage and guerrilla-style operations, also known as razvedchiki (literally, “scouts”).11 This experience proved invaluable during World War II, when the Soviets used partisan formations extensively. In 1950 these forces became the spetsnaz, created to fulfill long-range battlefield reconnaissance and sabotage operations, specifically targeting NATO command and control and nuclear weapons. Throughout the Cold War the GRU spetsnaz gained extensive experience supporting, training, and supervising local allied forces in numerous conflicts.12 Spetsnaz units played key roles in the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. They also gained significant experience and notoriety during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989). Spetsnaz units conducted rapid-response, interdiction, and ambush operations and were involved in the 1979 assassination of Afghanistan’s leader, Hafizullah Amin.13 After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the GRU, like the Ministry of Defense and other intelligence services, struggled for financial and political support in Russia. As the KGB was carved up into various organizations, the GRU fought for relevance and to prevent its missions from being given to newly emerging security organizations.14 Despite massive personnel losses and budget cuts, the GRU retained its foreign intelligence presence and its independence under the General Staff.15 At the same time, GRU spetsnaz forces suffered heavily from budget cuts and the lack of a clearly defined need, since conflict with NATO became unlikely. Many officers saw better prospects in the Airborne Forces (VDV), which positioned itself as a more capable and elite rapid-response unit. Some former spetsnaz allegedly worked for organized crime.16 In wars against Russia’s breakaway region of Chechnya in the 1990s and 2000s, the GRU and spetsnaz units participated in direct combat and managed local allied Chechen forces.17 …
The GRU’s true structure is a closely guarded secret. The GRU structure described below is based on publicly available reports and documents. Regional Directorates (4) Mission-Specific Directorates (11) (1) First Directorate: European Union (2) Second Directorate: North and South America, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand (3) Third Directorate: Asia (4) Fourth Directorate: Africa (5) Fifth Directorate: Operational Intelligence (6) Sixth Directorate: Electronic/Signals Intelligence (7) Seventh Directorate: NATO (8) Eighth Directorate: Spetsnaz (9) Ninth Directorate: Military Technology (10) Tenth Directorate: Military Economy (11) Eleventh Directorate: Strategic Doctrine (12) Twelfth Directorate: Information Operations (13) Space Intelligence Directorate (14) Operational and Technical Directorate (15) External Relations Department
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Nov. 26, 2016 PODGORICA, Montenegro After multiple but unproven accusations that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is working hard to destabilize America’s friends in Europe, a pro-Russian mercenary detained in Montenegro is slowly spilling his guts--and providing the first insider’s account of what the authorities in this tiny Balkan nation say were Russian efforts to sow mayhem. The man, Aleksandar Sindjelic, a veterananti-Western activist from neighboring Serbia, has become a key informant--and a suspect--in a sprawling investigation into an alleged plot orchestrated by two Russians to seize Montenegro’s Parliament building last month, kill the prime minister and install a new government hostile to NATO. Mr. Sindjelic’s account of the events includes a visit to Moscow in September to plan the operation and details of the encrypted phones he was asked to use to avoid eavesdropping.
The Montenegrin authorities say two Russians carrying passports in the names of Eduard V. Shirikov and Vladimir N. Popov commanded the botched plot. But both men, who oversaw preparations for the operation from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, are back in Moscow. The Montenegrin news media has reported that they are agents of Russia’s military intelligence service, known as the G.R.U. …
“There is a big struggle going on,” said Ranko Krivokapic, an opposition leader who has lobbied for years for Montenegro to join NATO. “We are the last piece of the Mediterranean that is not already in NATO, the last piece in a big puzzle.” Russia has campaigned furiously to keep Montenegro out of the alliance, supporting pro-Moscow political groups in the country and Orthodox priests who view NATO as a threat to Slavic fraternity and faith.
“NATO is an occupying force, and I am absolutely against it,” said Momcilo Krivokapic, an Orthodox priest and an estranged relative of the pro-NATO politician. His church in Kotor, an ancient fortress town, is just a few yards from Kotor Bay, a deepwater haven long coveted by both Russia and the West for its strategic location.
In early October, Father Krivokapic presided over a ceremony in Kotor for the foundation of the Balkan Cossack Army, a Russian-led grouping of Pan-Slavic nationalists bitterly hostile to NATO. The priest described the gathering as “just folklore,” featuring men in fur hats and imperial-era costumes.
Yet it was also attended by members of the Night Wolves, a Russian motorcycle gang whose leader is a friend of Mr. Putin’s, and mercenaries who have fought in eastern Ukraine on the side of Russian-backed separatists….
R ussia’s Foreign Ministry, which warned of unspecified “negative consequences” when Montenegro announced it wanted to join NATO, has strongly denied any Russian role in fomenting trouble. Accusing Mr. Djukanovic of fanning anti-Russian hysteria, Moscow has called for a referendum on NATO membership, a vote that opinion polls indicate could easily reject the alliance. the two Russians, Mr. Popov and Mr. Shirikov--they have vanished. They had been in Belgrade but were allowed to return to Moscow after a visit to the Serbian capital late last month by Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Mr. Putin’s security council and a former head of Russia’s F.S.B. security service….
Serbian PM Vucic swiftly announced a shake-up of Serbia’s intelligence services, many of whose members have traditionally leaned toward Russia and view the West as an enemy, a feeling that intensified with NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign….
Serbia’s prime minister announced that there was “incontrovertible evidence” that “certain people” had placed Mr. Djukanovic, Montenegro’s leader, under close surveillance using “the most modern equipment” and were reporting to co-conspirators who “were supposed to act in accordance with their instructions.”
Several people “who were acting in coordination with foreigners” had been arrested in Serbia, he said.
Among those arrested was Mr. Sindjelic, who was swiftly transferred to the Spuz detention center in Montenegro.
Adding to a fog of fearful foreboding, the Serbian authorities then announced they had uncovered a cache of arms near Mr. Vucic’s family home in Belgrade, a stash that Serbian news media outlets said had been put there in preparation for an assassination attempt against the Serbian leader too. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/world/europe/finger-pointed-at-russians-in-alleged-coup-plot-in-montenegro.html?module=inline
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