GU
 Main Intelligence Directorate - GRU    | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent organization | Russia |
| Founder of | Wagner Group |
| Subpage | •GU/Director |
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, abbreviated G.U.[1], formerly the Main Intelligence Directorate and still commonly known by its previous abbreviation GRU, is the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (formerly the USSR′s General Staff).[2]
Unlike Russia′s other security and intelligence agencies, such as the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Federal Protective Service (FSO), whose heads report directly to the President Putin, the GRU's director Igor Korobov is subordinate to the Russian military command, i.e. the Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff. Until 2010, the GRU combined a military intelligence service and special forces.[3]
The GRU is reputedly Russia's largest foreign intelligence agency. According to unverified statements by GRU defector Stanislav Lunev, in 1997 the agency deployed six times as many agents in foreign countries as the SVR, the successor of the KGB's foreign operations directorate (PGU KGB). It also commanded 25,000 Spetsnaz troops in 1997.[4]
Hacking the OPCW
On 4 October 2018, Dutch military intelligence service (MIVD) Director Onno Eichelsheim asserted that his service interrupted a GRU attempt to hack the WiFi network of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. The OPCW has been probing the chemical attack on Sergei Skripal, a Russian ex-spy in Salisbury (UK), as well as the alleged chemical attacks in Syria.
MIVD has published details about the four GRU operatives who arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on 10 April 2018: Alexei Moronets, Evgeni Serebriakov, Oleg Sotnikov and Alexei Minin, all of whom had travelled on diplomatic passports and were caught observing the OPCW headquarters. A laptop seized from the GRU suspects had been used in Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia.[5]
Employee on Wikispooks
| Employee | Job | Appointed | End | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Igor Korobov | GU/Director | 2016 | 21 November 2018 | Died in office |
References
- ↑ "G.R.U., Russian Spy Agency Cited by Mueller, Casts a Long Shadow". The New York Times. 13 July 2018.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ "GRU Russia: The spy agency and global cyber-attacks explained"
- ↑ "Reuters Factbox on Russian military intelligence by Dmitry Solovyov". Reuters. Retrieved 15 November 2014.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ Lunev, Stanislav (12 September 1997). "Changes may be on the way for the Russian security services". PRISM. The Jamestown Foundation. 3 (14). Archived from the original on 25 November 2006. Cite uses deprecated parameter
|deadurl=(help)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto"). - ↑ "Netherlands — MIVD Director: 'GRU Hacked OPCW Wi-Fi Network'”
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