GRU - myths and truths about the top secret headquarters of intelligence

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The American newspaper The New York Times (NYT) published an article about a top-secret unit of the General Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU GSh). The main task of this structure is to conduct operations to destabilize the internal situation in Europe.

Organizing protests, sabotage and assassinations

Journalists claim that the GRU is involved in organizing protests against the pro-Western government of Moldova, as well as a coup d'etat in Montenegro in 2016-2017 (there were mass unrest in Podgorica due to the country's integration into NATO). The newspaper did not forget about the mysterious attempt on the life of the defector Sergei Skripal, who was poisoned by Novichok in Salisbury in March 2018.

“Now Western intelligence officials have come to the conclusion that these operations, and possibly many others, were carried out as part of a coordinated and ongoing campaign to destabilize the situation in Europe, carried out by an elite unit within the Russian intelligence system with skills in subversion, sabotage and murder. ", - says the article

Citing sources in four Western countries, NYT reports that the top-secret unit is military unit 29155, located on 11th Parkovaya Street, in eastern Moscow. From open data it follows that the 161st training center for special purposes is located there. Its chief is Major General Andrey Averyanov.

The personnel and command staff of the unit are veterans of military operations in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine. In 2016, they allegedly planned to assassinate the Prime Minister of Montenegro and "seize the parliament building"

“This is a division of the GRU that has been active throughout Europe for many years. It was a surprise that the Russians, the GRU, and the operatives of this military unit felt themselves so unpunished that they began to conduct this extremely hostile activity in friendly countries. It came as a shock, - quoted by NYT one of the sources.

The newspaper reports that one of the alleged poisoners of Skripal, Alexander Petrov (Alexander Mishkin), allegedly came to the UK a year before the poisoning. In the campaign with him were two "operatives" Sergei Pavlov and Sergei Fedotov (it is noted that these are fictitious names), who in 2015 tried to poison the Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev.

Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, reacted with humor to the NYT article.

"Such publications are, let's say, from the category of" pulp fiction ", in English - pulp fiction", - said a Kremlin spokesman

Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Federation Council Commission on Information Policy, believes that the journalists of the American newspaper "confused the plot of a bad Hollywood thriller and reality."

There is no need to talk about journalism

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A military source of the RP said that the NYT material about the top-secret GRU unit is a mixture of real facts and "near-political speculation." According to him, the journalists either "did not work well with the texture", or the task of conveying more or less reliable information was not set before them from the outset.

“For a Western man in the street, this publication looks quite reliable, given the course of the Western media to demonize Russia and the hype surrounding the Salisbury incident. The New York Times very successfully placed information about this unit in the context of current political events. But a professional military man or journalist should have a huge number of questions, "says the source of our publication

From his point of view, The New York Times "too creatively" processed the information received from the Western intelligence services. At the time of writing the material, the journalists "clearly got carried away", trying to find a connection in the incidents that are attributed to the GRU (now - GU. - RT).

He believes that the Western intelligence services may indeed know the structure of the GRU and the personal data of hundreds of employees. Most likely, by order of politicians, they periodically allow data leaks in the media in order to discredit the military intelligence of the Russian Federation.

“I would describe the NYT article as frivolous. Instead of attempting a detailed and balanced analysis of the activities of the GRU and the indicated military unit, the journalists descended to horror stories about the all-powerful demonic KGB, in which Putin served, and the bloodthirsty Russian spies-killers. This fits well with the Western reader. This, as it is now fashionable to say, "hype" was probably the meaning of the article, "said our source

Indeed, the NYT material does not provide the most successful and plausible "evidence" of the activities of military unit 29155. The allegations of the planned assassination of the head of the government of Montenegro are extremely doubtful. Moscow was categorically against the entry of this country into NATO, but this event had no fundamental significance for the balance of power in the world. Therefore, the Russian Federation could not have had any military-political intent to arrange such a risky and complex sabotage.

At the same time, NYT rightly emphasizes that the destabilization of the situation in Europe and in the Western world as a whole is objectively beneficial for Moscow. It is logical to assume that operations are being developed within the walls of the GRU and other competent departments in order to split the existing anti-Russian consensus and prevent it from strengthening and spreading to other countries.

It is foolish to deny that rocking the boat inside the collective West and individual Western states is in the national interests of the Russian Federation

For example, Russian diplomacy and the foreign broadcasting system "pick up" any protest activity in Europe and the United States, trying to convince Western audiences that their government is a priori short-sighted and wrong policy, tramples on democratic values and is not interested in solving pressing socio-economic problems.

True, Western institutions and the media controlled by them act in a similar way in relation to Russia, to which the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation has assigned the status of “foreign agent”. The significance of any problem that has arisen on the agenda in our country is exaggerated, brought to the point of absurdity, and the work of the authorities is gloatingly criticized.

The goal of pro-Western propaganda and foreign broadcasting is to discredit the political regime in the Russian Federation and cause a surge of mass discontent. It is impossible to find a single kind word about Putin and the state machine in the materials of such media. Almost every step of the leadership of the Russian Federation is ridiculed or sown with mud

“The NYT publication is part of the information and political confrontation, which in turn is part of the geopolitical conflict between the West and Russia. Since 2014, the West has been actively demonizing Russia, Russia - the West. There is no need to talk about journalism in such conditions. All major media have de facto turned into propaganda institutions. At the same time, problems that are really important for society and the armed forces remain on the periphery of this war,”the RP military source concluded.