Glawnoe Rasvedyvatelnoe Uprawlenie

**Glawnoje Raswedyvatelnoje Uprawlenije** (GRU)
*Headquarters for Reconnaissance*

founding	November 5, 1918
country	Russian Federation Soviet Union (until 1991)
Task of the authority	Military intelligence
Supervisory authority	Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
director	Igor Kostyukov
Authority seat	Ulitsa Grisodubowoi, Moscow (headquarters)
budget	secret
Number of full-time employees	about 12,000
Guiding principle	Величие Родины - в Ваших славных делах 'The greatness of the fatherland lies in your glorious deeds'
subordinate services	GRU SpezNas

The Glawnoje Raswedywatelnoje Uprawlenije ( Russian: Главное разведывательное управление (ГРУ) 'Headquarters for Reconnaissance' , GRU ) is the leading central organ of the Russian military intelligence service ( Воанзраякре .

Surname

Its official name is since 2010 Главное управление Генерального штаба Вооружённых Сил Российской Федерации Glawnoje Uprawlenije Generalnowo schtaba Wooruschjonnych Sil Rossijskoj Federazii (GU GSh WS RF) , German , headquarters of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation , where both people and even President Putin this change never understood in common parlance. The word denoting the main task ( Разведывательный , for clarification ' ) is therefore no longer officially part of the name.

assignment

The task of the GRU is the intelligence-gathering of all military-relevant information and counter-espionage within the Russian armed forces. Furthermore, the GRU maintains an operational command unit for unconventional warfare and counter-terrorism with the special unit Spetsna , which is able to operate covertly behind enemy lines on its own.

According to the Federal German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the most recent task of the GRU is industrial espionage . The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution not only mentions the civilian foreign intelligence service SWR , but also the GRU and the domestic secret service FSB . Hans-Peter Uhl , a former member of the Parliamentary Control Committee , said that in 2007, when the head of the SWR was inaugurated, Putin gave orders to undertake industrial espionage abroad to strengthen the Russian Federation's economy.

Assassinations and political destabilization abroad

The GRU is suspected of having committed numerous state contract killings abroad. These include, for example, the assassinations of the Chechen leader Selimchan Abdumuslimowitsch Jandarbijew on February 13, 2004 in exile in Doha , by Umar Israilow on January 13, 2009 in Vienna , by Sulim Bekmirsajewitsch Jamadajew on March 30, 2009 in Dubai , by Amina Okujewa on January 30, 2009 . October 2017 in Hlewacha and by Selimchan Changoschwili on August 23, 2019 in Berlin .

The New York Times and the news magazine Der Spiegel named GRU unit 29155 , presumably led by Major General Andrei Averianov , as likely responsible for most of these attacks. This unity is also accused of carrying out systematic actions to politically destabilize other states. These include the destabilization of the Republic of Moldova in 2014, the attempted poisoning of the Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrew in Sofia in 2015 and a failed coup in Montenegro in 2016. The GRU also finances anti- EU parties in order to weaken the European Union ; In this context, an influence on the Brexit referendum was proven. The Russian influence on the election campaign in the United States in 2016 also caused diplomatic tensions .

At the end of June 2020, the New York Times published US intelligence information from the spring of 2020, according to which Unit 29155 had offered and partially paid the Taliban bounties for the killing of US soldiers and other NATO soldiers in Afghanistan .

The GRU unit 26165, called Sofacy Group , is also supposed to be responsible as a hacker collective for cyberattacks on Western facilities.

Assassinations that are brought into connection with the GRU include:

Victim	date	place	method
Yuri Shchekochikhin	June 16, 2003	Moscow , Russia	Poisoned
Selimkhan Jandarbiev	February 13, 2004	Doha , Qatar	Explosives attack . He and two of his bodyguards died.
Anna Politkovskaya	October 7, 2006	Moscow, Russia	Shot (an attempt to poison had already failed in 2004)
Alexander Litvinenko	November 1, 2006	London , UK	Poisoned with ²¹⁰ polonium
Umar Israilov	January 13, 2009	Vienna , Austria	Shot
Sulim Yamadayev	March 30, 2009	Dubai , United Arab Emirates	Shot
Boris Abramovich Berezovsky	March 23, 2013	Ascot , UK	Strangulation (murder attempts had already failed in the 1990s)
Emilian Gebrew	April 28, 2015	Sofia , Bulgaria	Attempted poisoning, presumably with Novichok
Vladimir Kara-Mursa	May 26, 2015 & February 2, 2017	Moscow, Russia	Attempted poisonings
Amina Okueva	October 30, 2017	Hlewacha , Ukraine	Shot
Sergei Skripal	4th March 2018	Salisbury , UK	Attempted poisoning with Novichok. He and his daughter, who was also poisoned, survived. An uninvolved woman died.
Nikolai Glushkov	March 12, 2018	London, UK	Strangulation (an attempt at poisoning had already failed in 2013)
Pyotr Versilov	September 12, 2018	Moscow, Russia	Attempted poisoning
Selimchan Changoshvili	23 August 2019	Berlin , Germany	Shot

history

GRU coat of arms ( Величие Родины - в Ваших славных делах , 'The greatness of the fatherland lies in your glorious deeds' )

The former tsarist officer and member of the imperial Russian military intelligence service Semyon Aralov became the first director of the GRU in January 1918, but was demoted in July 1920 and head of the military intelligence department in the 12th Army .

During the Cold War, the GRU was responsible for military espionage , and later also for arms deliveries to rebel groups and regimes in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where the Soviet Union was seeking a communist government. The principle of service has been “no public” since the 1960s (under the direction of General Ivashutin). It was only when the KGB claimed the theft of the atom bomb secrets for itself that the GRU declassified some of the archive materials with which Vladimir Lota created the book The GRU and the Atom Bomb in 2002 .

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the GRU network remained intact and is now active for the Russian Federation. In the 1990s, official arms sales were made through a state export agency, and the GRU's unofficial channels were only used for delicate situations, such as deliveries to Palestine , so as not to jeopardize relations with Israel .

As successor to Valentin Korabelnikow, Lieutenant General Alexander Schljakhturow was appointed head of the Enlightenment Headquarters (the so-called 2nd Headquarters of the General Staff) and Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces at the end of April 2009 . RIA Novosti reported in 2009 that there were differences between the management of the GRU and the Russian Defense Ministry over the concept of military reforms - especially in the part that directly affected the GRU . In 2011, Putin decided to let the competitive situation persist when the FSB tried to take control of the GRU.

In 2014, security experts at Google had knowledge of apparently state-developed malware. Russia was not mentioned in their technical report, but its title was "View into the Aquarium", an allusion to the GRU headquarters in Moscow, which bears this nickname. In 2014, the retired lieutenant colonel of the GRU Dmitri Utkin took over command of the Wagner mercenary unit .

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported in 2015 that the GRU has also been active in eastern Ukraine since 2014 in connection with the war in Ukraine .

In January 2016, the head of the GRU Igor Dmitrijewitsch Sergun died surprisingly or mysteriously, depending on the source - according to various information about the place and time according to official information of a heart attack in a sanatorium of the FSB.

In December 2016, US President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on GRU leaders for illegally influencing the US elections .

According to an article in the Washington Post in December 2017, US intelligence agencies attribute various destabilization actions to the GRU during Euromaidan in Ukraine 2013/2014, in which GRU agents on social media posed as Russian-speaking Ukrainians who pretended to be in their text messages Life is threatened by “brigades” of aggressive “Westerners”.

British and Dutch authorities announced in October 2018 that a division of the GRU called " Unit 26165 " appeared as a hacking group that had previously become known under various names such as ATP 28, Fancy Bear or Sofacy Group . It was also agents of this department who tried to break into the Wi-Fi network of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague in 2018 . The Russian agents involved, who had previously targeted the World Anti-Doping Agency in Lausanne , were arrested by the Dutch authorities, but could not be detained because of their diplomatic passports and were expelled. In July 2020, the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions in the form of entry bans and account freezes against four agents involved, as well as against the GRU main center for special technologies.

After the attack with nerve gas on Sergei Skripal and the expulsion of agents from the Netherlands an unusual amount of information came about the GRU to the public, for which the then director of the GRU, Igor Korobov , was blamed. Korobow died on November 21, 2018 "after a long and serious illness". His interim successor was Vice Admiral Igor Kostjukow , who had already appeared as the deputy of the sick Korobov at the 100th anniversary of the secret service.

Because of the hacker attacks on the German Bundestag , the EU imposed sanctions in the form of entry bans and account freezes against Dmitri Badin , GRU director Igor Kostjukow and the entire GRU department responsible for cyber attacks in October 2020 .

organization

GRU headquarters on Chodynka Field in Moscow (2013)

In contrast to the KGB , the GRU was and is little known. The GRU was and is a head office of the Soviet, or today Russian General Staff . Unlike the dissolved KGB, the GRU survived the collapse of the Soviet Union as a structure. She is directly subordinate to the Chief of the General Staff.

The main service administration is divided into twelve operational administrations and numerous other administrations, departments and associations.

Operational administrations

First administration: Europe
Second Administration: North and South America ; UK , Australia and New Zealand
Third administration: Asia
Fourth administration: Africa
Fifth Administration: Operational Reconnaissance
Sixth Administration: Radio Reconnaissance
Seventh administration: NATO
Eighth administration: Operations, including those that only take place sporadically in smaller countries
Ninth administration: armaments technology
Tenth administration: military economy
Eleventh Administration: Military Doctrine and Arming of Foreign Armed Forces
Twelfth Administration: Counterintelligence
Thirteenth Administration: Information Warfare

Other administrations, departments and associations

Administration of cosmic reconnaissance ( reconnaissance satellites )
Management (personnel)
Operational-technical administration
Administrative-technical management
External relations management
Political administration
Financial management
Archives Department
Information service
Information Dissemination Department
Decryption service
Military political or military diplomatic academy
16th Spetsnaz Brigade ( Ryazan )
22nd Spetsnaz Brigade ( Moscow )

Spetsnaz

Specialist group of the GRU (1988)

GRU SpezNas patch

The GRU also maintains its own special unit Spezial'noje naznačenije ( Speznas ), the strength of which is estimated at 25,000 soldiers. It commands all types of telecommunications and electronic reconnaissance ( SIGINT ), including communications intelligence ( COMINT ), electronic intelligence ( ELINT ), radar intelligence ( RADINT ), telemetry intelligence ( TELINT ) and infrared sets reconnaissance .

The 3rd Guards Spetsnaz Brigade (Russian 3-я отдельная гвардейская Варшавско-Берлинская Краснознамённая ордена Суворова III степени бригада специального назначения (3-я огбрСпН)) is the most important Russian United Association of the military intelligence GRU is assumed.

The 82nd Osnaz Brigade is used for electronic reconnaissance for operational and strategic intelligence gathering .

GRU in Germany

GDR

The structure of the GRU existed in the GDR until 1990 within the group of the Soviet Armed Forces in Germany (GSSD / WGT) and continued to a limited extent until the troop withdrawal was completed in 1994.

Administration of the investigation of the GSSD / WGT in Wünsdorf :

Coordination and control of all intelligence activities of the army group

1st Department - Tactical Reconnaissance :

Reconnaissance units of the divisions and regiments of the GSSD

2nd Department - Operational Reconnaissance :

Awareness Center Berlin-Karlshorst
Operational departments: Rostock I, Rostock II ( Baltic Red Banner Fleet ), Magdeburg, Leipzig, Dresden

3rd department - Spetsnaz

3rd Guard Special Reconnaissance Brigade Neuthymen , SpN companies, SpN base

4. Department - Information

Evaluation center (KRZ)

5th Department: Electronic Reconnaissance

OsNaz regiments
Helicopter squadron ( Rechlin-Lärz airfield , REB)

82nd Radio Brigade in Torgau for radio reconnaissance with regional listening posts , including on the Brocken .

Strategic branch in the Federal Republic of Germany

Soviet Military Liaison Missions / Military Inspections
- Bünde / Westphalia ( British zone) until 1990
- Frankfurt-Niederrad ( American zone ) until 1990
- Baden-Baden ( French zone ) until 1990
Tarn residences : Cologne , Bonn
Legal residencies: Russian Embassy in Berlin , Russian Consulate General in Bonn

management

At the time of the Soviet Union

Semyon Ivanovich Aralov 1918-1919
Sergei Ivanovich Gussew June – December 1919
Georgi Leonidowitsch Pyatakow January – February 1920
Vladimir Christianowitsch Aussem February – June 1920
Jan Davydowitsch Lenzman 1920–1921
Arwid Janowitsch Seibot 1921-1924
Jan Karlowitsch Bersin 1924–1935 and July – November 1937
Semyon Petrovich Uritsky 1935–1937
Semjon Grigoryevich Gendin 1937–1938
Alexander Grigoryevich Orlov 1938–1939
Ivan Iosifowitsch Proskurow 1939–1940
Filipp Ivanovich Golikow 1940–1941
Alexei Pavlovich Panfilow 1941–1942
Ivan Ivanovich Ilyichov 1942–1945
Fyodor Fedotowitsch Kuznetsov 1945–1947
Nikolai Michailowitsch Trussow 1947–1949
Matwei Wassiljewitsch Sakharov 1949–1952
Michail Alexejewitsch Schalin 1952–1956, 1957–1958
Sergei Matveevich Shtemenko 1956–1957
Ivan Alexandrowitsch Serow 1958–1963
Pyotr Ivanovich Iwaschutin 1963–1987
Wladlen Michailowitsch Michailow 1987–1991

Russian Federation

Yevgeny Leonidowitsch Timochin 1991–1992
Fyodor Ivanovich Ladygin 1992–1997
Valentin Wladimirowitsch Korabelnikow 1997-2009
Alexander Wassiljewitsch Schljachturow 2009–2011
Igor Dmitrievich Sergun 2011-2016
Igor Walentinowitsch Korobow 2016–2018
Igor Olegowitsch Kostjukow from 2018

Known agents

Kurt Fischer
Aino Kuusinen
Richard Sorge 1929–1944
Ilse Stöbe unexplained
Leopold Trepper approx. 1937–1950?
Ruth Werner 1931–1950
Viktor Suvorov ? 1967–1978
Oleg Wladimirowitsch Penkowski 1953-1960
Sándor Radó 1935–1944
Rudolf Herrnstadt approx. 1933–1939
Gerhard Kegel approx. 1933–1989
Klaus Fuchs 1942–1944 (afterwards for the NKGB )
Dmitri Sergeevich Badin

Defector

literature

Pawel Gusterin : Советская разведка на Ближнем и Среднем Востоке в 1920-30-х годах. Саарбрюккен, 2014, ISBN 978-3-659-51691-7
Stanislaw Lunew: Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev. Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1998, ISBN 0-89526-390-4 .
Yuri Pushkin : GRU in Germany. Activities of the Soviet secret service after the German reunification. BARETT Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-924753-56-3 .
Hans Schafranek : “We cannot help relatives of enemies of the people.” The fate of the Nebenführ family. In: Hans Schafranek (Ed.): Die Betrogenen. Austrians as victims of Stalinist terror in the Soviet Union. Vienna 1991, pp. 75-100 (concerning a high-ranking Austrian GRU officer who was murdered in Moscow in 1939).
Matthias Uhl : "And that's why the task is to get the reconnaissance back on its feet" - On the Great Purges in the Soviet military reconnaissance in 1937/38. In: Hermann Weber and Ulrich Mählert (eds.): Crimes in the name of the idea: Terror in communism 1936–1938. Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-7466-8152-8 , pp. 124-141.
Viktor Suvorov : Aquarium. ( Аквариум ), Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1985, ISBN 0-241-11545-0 .
Viktor Suworow: GRU - The spearhead: What the KGB is for the political leadership, the GRU is for the Red Army. 3., corr. Edition, Barett, Solingen 1995, ISBN 3-924753-18-0 .
Viktor Suvorov: Inside Soviet Military Intelligence ( Memento from January 17, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) 1984, ISBN 0-02-615510-9 .
Viktor Suvorov: Spetsnaz ( Memento from January 7, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1987, ISBN 0-241-11961-8 .