Unit 29155

Unit 29155 is a Russian GRU unit tasked with foreign assassinations and other covert activities aimed at destabilizing European countries.[1] The Unit is thought to have operated in secret since at least 2008, though its existence only became publicly known in 2019.[1][2]

Activities

Unit 29155 was linked by the investigative Bellingcat website to the attempted assassinations of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev in April 2015 and the former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal in March 2018, both possibly overseen by the same agent.[3] It has also been implicated in the recent Catalan independence movement.[4] According to Ben Macintyre in the London Times in December 2019, the unit is believed to be responsible for a destabilisation campaign in Moldova and a failed coup plot in Montenegro in 2016 including an attempt to assassinate the prime minister and occupy the parliament building by force.[5]

The unit's operations were described as sloppy by security officials since none of the operations to which it has been linked were successful.[1]

U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Unit 29155 has offered cash rewards to Afghan militants to kill U.S. and other coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. They also believe that some rewards have been paid for successful attacks.[6]

Organisation

The Unit is commanded by Maj. Gen. Andrei Vladimirovich Averyanov and based at the headquarters of the 161st Special Purpose Specialist Training Center in eastern Moscow.[1][2] Its membership included some honoured veterans from the Russian wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Ukraine identified as Denis Sergeev (aka Sergei Fedotov), Alexander Mishkin (aka Alexander Petrov), Anatoliy Chepiga (aka Ruslan Boshirov), Sergey Lyutenkov (aka Sergey Pavlov), Eduard Shishmakov (aka Eduard Shirokov), Vladimir Moiseev (aka Vladimir Popov), Ivan Terentyev (aka Ivan Lebedev), Nikolay Ezhov (aka Nikolay Kononikhin), Alexey Kalinin (aka Alexei Nikitin), and Danil Kapralov (aka Danil Stepanov). [1][7][8]

Le Monde reported in December 2019, citing French intelligence contacts, that 15 agents connected with Unit 29155 visited the Haute-Savoie region of the French Alps between 2014 and 2018 including Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov who are believed responsible for the Skripal poisoning.[9][10] High-ranking GRU officer Denis Vyacheslavovich Sergeev (alias Sergei Fedotov) has been identified by British authorities as the commander of the team that poisoned Skripal.[11][12]

See also

References
  1. Schwirtz, Michael (8 October 2019). "Top Secret Russian Unit Seeks to Destabilize Europe, Security Officials Say". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  2. Schwirtz, Michael (22 December 2019). "How a Poisoning in Bulgaria Exposed Russian Assassins in Europe". The New York Times.
  3. "8 Russian Agents Linked to Bulgaria Poisoning – Bellingcat". The Moscow Times. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  4. López-Fonseca, Óscar; Pérez, Fernando J. (21 November 2019). "Spain's High Court opens investigation into Russian spying unit in Catalonia". El Pais. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  5. Macintyre, Ben (6 December 2019). "Smersh spy-killers are back in business". The Times. London. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  6. Savage, Charlie; Schmitt, Eric; Schwirtz, Michael. "Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties". New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  7. "The Dreadful Eight: GRU's Unit 29155 and the 2015 Poisoning of Emilian Gebrev". Leicester, England: Bellingcat. 23 November 2019. Archived from the original on 23 November 2019.
  8. Отравительная восьмерка. Как и зачем 8 сотрудников ГРУ пытались отравить «Новичком» болгарского предпринимателя Гебрева [Poisonous Eight. How and why 8 GRU employees tried to poison the Bulgarian entrepreneur Gebrev with “Novichok”]. The Insider (in Russian). 23 November 2019. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019.
  9. Janjevic, Darko (5 December 2019). "Russia posted GRU agents in French Alps for EU ops — report". Deutsche Welle (DW). Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  10. Bremner, Charles (6 December 2019). "Russian assassins hid out in Alpine ski resorts". The Times. London. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  11. https://www.yahoo.com/news/poisoning-bulgaria-exposed-russian-assassins-133100185.html
  12. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/02/14/third-suspect-in-skripal-poisoning-identified-as-denis-sergeev-high-ranking-gru-officer/
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