Unit 29155: What Putin’s secret assassination squad did and how it came to light

In a recently published interview, the Russian-language investigative medium ‘The Insider’ provides insight into the structures of unit 29155, which is said to be responsible for sabotage and attacks throughout Europe.

‘The Insider’ and the Bellingcat investigative network have reported extensively on the unit’s commander in recent years. He will now succeed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was murdered in 2023.

Watson summarizes the key points.

How do we know this?

By Christo Grosev, an award-winning Bulgarian investigative journalist, communications scholar and member of the Bellingcat investigative network. The 54-year-old leads his own investigative team at the Russian-language, Kremlin-critical outlet ‘The Insider’ and recently gave a lengthy interview about Unit 29155. The conversation, conducted in English, is available as a video (see Resources).

As early as October 2023, ‘The Insider’ caused a stir with an exposé report on Unit 29155. It was about an attack on a Bulgarian ammunition depot in November 2011. According to the report, this bombing was Russia’s first known act of war against a NATO and EU member state .

What makes Unit 29155 so dangerous?

It is a large unit within the Russian military intelligence service GRU, with approximately 400 members. The official goal is to train officers “in the field of explosions, sabotage and assassination.”

This unit has in the past carried out some of the most high-profile attacks on the West and on people Vladimir Putin considers his enemies. Such as the poison attack on (now imprisoned) opposition figure Alexei Navalny in Britain in 2020.

There is an unnamed subunit within the unit. It is sometimes called K2, sometimes K200, but it is a sub-unit of 29155 that conducts international operations for military intelligence.

On the one hand, this sub-unit trains agents who spend their entire adult lives inconspicuously abroad as so-called sleepers. You can imagine this as in the TV series “The Americans”.

On the other hand, agents are also trained who are only sent abroad for a few weeks and their false identity is therefore Russian. Some completed their vocational training under an pseudonym, such as a film director who later infiltrated Barcelona’s artistic circles. Or a man who traveled abroad as a trained insurance broker.

Thanks to major investments, the unit was able to set up 70 cover identities from 2007 and 2008.

What do we know about the commander?

The old commander of Unit 29155 was recently photographed next to Putin: General Andrei Averyanovborn in 1967 in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

Grosev says about the GRU officer:

According to “The Insider,” Averyanov has now stepped up and been appointed by Putin as successor to Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. This would make him responsible for Russia’s security relations abroad.

He takes over many functions, networks and connections in the Middle East and Africa from Prigozhin and his mercenary group. They are involved in various regimes in Africa and the Middle East on behalf of the Russian state and ensure the security of all dictators.

How can the unit be exposed?

Grosev and his team stumbled upon Unit 29155 quite by accident: they were investigating the background to the 2018 poison attack in Salisbury, UK, on ​​Sergei Skripal, an officer from Russia’s GRU military intelligence service who defected to the West. Skripal’s daughter was also injured in the attack with the help of the nerve agent Novichok and a British woman, who was not involved at all, died because the perpetrators left a perfume spray bottle containing the poison lying around.

With an ironic undertone, the investigative journalist says that Russia is probably “the most transparent society in the world”. This is because there you can buy data about anyone, not only normal people, but also spies. This, in turn, is due to the corruption of Russian law enforcement authorities.

Using purchased Russian phone metadata and comparing travel data, an entire network of agents could be exposed.

In addition, the agents traveled with passports that were easily identified as fake because they all appeared with consecutive serial numbers.

What was the unit’s first attack abroad?

The investigative journalist explains that the 2018 poisoning in Salisbury exposed the careless Russian agents, but it was not the first time they did something in public.

This Bulgarian wanted to sell weapons and ammunition to Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. But at that time no one knew anything about the Novichok nerve agent group or about the existence of unit 29155.

The man barely survived the attack and the weapons were sold to Ukraine.

Unit 29155 was then also involved in “largely targeting the Bulgarian arms industry with explosives”.

The bombings of ammunition depots are particularly explosive because Bulgaria is a member of NATO and a Russian attack could even have caused the alliance’s collapse.

Meanwhile, Czech and Bulgarian prosecutors are investigating Russia and the GRU military intelligence service, Grosev said. But nothing was done then.

Have the Western secret services failed?

Yes, according to Growew that is true. He was sure that the Western secret services had messed up.

The agents of Unit 29155 have been traveling through Europe, Asia and America for at least ten years, blowing up places and leaving trails behind. “They wanted to get caught, but no one did.”

Should world chess champion Kasparov be killed?

Nothing is known about concrete plans. But according to Growew this can be assumed. And that chance would certainly have existed, as The Insider investigated.

For example, unit 29155 managed to infiltrate an agent in the immediate vicinity of the Russian world chess champion and activist. As is known, Garry Kasparov, who has had Croatian citizenship since 2014, is one of the fiercest critics of the Russian president.

To their dismay, during their investigation they discovered that this agent, under a false identity, had become a respected member of several Russian opposition groups abroad. They were active as human rights organizations in Europe and the US. And the Russian agent can be seen together with Kasparov in photos of public events.

Grosev says he contacted Kasparov and warned him before the investigation was published. He thanked me and said he actually expected it.

What are the consequences of the revelations?

Some of these people are now being arrested, Growew says. He managed to put out a generation of killers – and that wasn’t a bad thing.

The investigative journalist says he himself is on Putin’s death list. Someone from Russian intelligence – supposedly a fan of his work – even contacted him and that person warned him very clearly that he had seen evidence of this.

He could certainly imagine that some people in unit 29155 would be very angry with him.

As for the near future, the Bulgarian investigative journalist is cautiously optimistic, but has no illusions.

The exposed agents, who can no longer travel to Europe and blow things up in the West, would most likely be used as advisors, trainers or assassins in Africa and the Middle East.

Sources