Source: https://vz.ru/world/2019/10/9/1002097.html
Translated by Scott Humor
The New York Times has published another article “to expose the subversive work” of the GRU in Europe. We are talking about nothing less than the activities of an entire military unit, the purpose of which is to conduct “subversion, sabotage and murder.” What does this military unit actually do, and how convincing are the published accusations?
In fact, the topic has long grew cold. The peak of attacks on the GRU came in the summer and autumn of last year against the background of the “Skripal’s case.” The campaign against the GRU took a form of daily harassment, which, in addition to the British and American media, were joined by liberal publications and “experts” in Russia. No real facts were presented, back then and now, but as a whole the “revelation” looks plausible for the Western audience, because it contains some figures, symbolizing the names of Russian military units (they might look for the English-speaking public as an interesting charade), and fitting random factoids. It reads like a spy-sabotage thriller – and, surprising, that this all has not yet found its reflection in Hollywood.
The current publication in the NYT is exactly the same: a collection of disparate assertions without any specific confirmation. It is impossible to draw any conclusions from this text. It’s just another material of the faded anti-Russia propaganda campaign, new in which was only another digital designation of the Russian military unit.
According to NYT, citing unnamed intelligence officials in four Western countries, the “coup attempt” in Montenegro, the “destabilization campaign” in Moldova, as well as the poisoning of Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev and ex-GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal in the UK involved the same unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Armed Forces (GRU, since 2010 – the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces). The publication notes that security agents in Western countries have concluded that these operations are part of a coordinated and ongoing “campaign to destabilize Europe.” According to them, it is conducted by an elite top-secret unit of Russian intelligence, which specializes in “subversion, sabotage and murder.”
According to the New York Times, the group, known as “the Unit 29155,” has been active for at least a decade, but Western authorities learned of its existence recently. It was first identified in 2016 after the failed coup in Montenegro, but “the extent of the activities of Western intelligence agencies realized” only after the poisoning of the Skripals in 2018. The unit is allegedly located in the Moscow headquarters of the 161st Special Purpose Training Center.
According to Western intelligence agencies, other employees of the GRU, most likely, don’t know about the existence of this unit.
The press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov, to whom the newspaper sent a request about the Unit 29155, redirected journalists to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. And it is clear why – in this story almost everything is a lie with the exception of the sincere reaction of Peskov. Representatives of the “intelligence in the four countries” heard, of course, a certain ringing, which was shared with an employee of the NYT, who also, apparently, is not too familiar with the Russian military and intelligence realities. And just with life, in general. No sane person can imagine that the military unit with the usual number “is unknown to other GRU employees,” “was identified only in 2016” and it is unclear how it is “mobilized”. To write this one has to not know anything about the realities of modern Russia.
Let’s start with the fact that the 161st training center (a.k.a. training center, GCHQ) has existed since Soviet times. Previously, it was located in the suburban objects so called “dachas” (for example, in Razdory) and there were trained special services and armies of the allied states. Now “dacha” in the town Razdory is abandoned and has become object for stalkers and junk dealers, which search there for artifacts like casings from educational radio transmitters 1970-1980’s to trade on flea markets. Another object m\u 29155 until the early 2000s was listed on the balance of the FSB in the Serebryany Bor (as an ordinary warehouse), but then was liquidated by the government of Moscow along with two dozen objects in the resort and park area of Serebryany Bor during its reconstruction.
[Washington used to have its Embassy retreat property in the Serebryany Bor until it was taken from the US in quid-pro-quo after Washington stole Russia’s owned properties in the US. Only in a pseudo-reality invented by the American Media the highly sensitive military training center would be located next to the US Embassy dacha on a small river island. S.H.]
Now military unit No. 29155 is located in Northern Izmailovo on 11th Park street and is a shameful for the “elite and top-secret units of the GRU” crumbling building behind the sloping white concrete fence, familiar to any soviet person.
[S.H. From the 2009 the military unit 29155 is listed in the All-Russia Business Directory as FEDERAL STATE INSTITUTION Military Unit 29155 with its actual street address, name of its commander and the state tenders.
ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ КАЗЕННОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ “ВОЙСКОВАЯ ЧАСТЬ 29155”]
It is unlikely that NYT employees ever visited this not the most touristy area of Moscow, but this imbalance was compensated by the statement that the elite unit, “destabilizing Europe,” is experiencing difficulties with financing.” As a proof, the NYT refers to the data from open sources that the commander of the unit General Andrei Averyanov allegedly lives in the Khrushchev built five story apartment building near the m\u and drives an old Soviet built “Zhiguli-five”.
All of these looks strange for respectful American publications. Not only do they not even try to double-check the information, they just invent it. Petrov and Bashirova are invented to be in the military unit 21955 based on the photos from the wedding of the daughter of General Averyanov. Also in this article mentioned the military unit 74455 (Scientific Center of Cryptography on Komsomolsk Avenue and Svoboda street, whose employees were accused by the US of hacking Hillary Clinton’s emails, as the newspaper VZGLYAD wrote in detail) and the m/u 99450 as the main source of “destabilization.”
[See also, What are military units #26165 and #74455 in Mueller’s indictment, S.H.]
The history of these digital designations is as following. In 2009, during the reform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, was created the Department of Special Operations (USO), subordinated personally to the Chief of the General Staff (back then it was General Nikolai Makarov). USO was formed on the basis of the center “Senezh” in Solnechnogorsk district, which was the m\u 92154.
And in April 2011, a second Special Purpose Center was established, subordinate to the head of the GRU in Kubinka-2 (aka “Zazaborye”, aka “Kuba”). In 2013, the new chief of the General staff Valery Gerasimov announced the beginning of formation of the Special Operations Forces Command (SDF). Then in 2013, Senezh and Kubinka began active construction of infrastructure. The Special Operations Forces Command (SDF) had received a designation as the military unit number 99450, which now the NYT accuses of all mortal sins, especially pressing for the “annexation of the Crimea.”
In Senezh emphasis is placed on parachute training, although here is also located the Department of Marine Special Operations (there is also a unit in Sevastopol) and the Anti-Terrorism unit.
Mountain training is carried out in North Ossetia (m \ u 90091) and the basis for the training and survival center “Terskol” in Kabardino-Balkaria. In general, these are assault army units trained to storm objects and destroy enemy bases, and not spy-style “killer-poisoners” and “Europe destabilizes.” Several units of security and protection are not even professional and comprise conscripts – a unit of reinforcements, command guards, a unit of material support, a technical platoon, a communication unit, a unit of new recruits.
On the territory of the military town of Senezh, a training, airborne and fire complexes are located, in addition to a canine complex, an indoor swimming pool, a sports hall, a tactical town for practicing actions in settlements, a helicopter pad, as well as a platform for driving special equipment, medical and office premises. In Kubinka (unit 01355) all roughly the same with emphasis on physical training.
Training of officers is carried out in the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School – RVVDKU (faculty of special and military intelligence and department of application of special purpose units) and Novosibirsk higher military command school – NVVKU (faculty of special intelligence and department of special intelligence and airborne training).
At the same time, parts of the S.O.F. experience a constant shortage of personnel with “non-physical” training. For example, there is a chronic lack of specialists with knowledge of foreign languages, which is a global problem (in terms of S.O.F., first of all, they look at the physical training). The French 13th Dragoon parachute regiment (13e Régiment de dragons parachutistes) of the S.O.F. of the French army’s Land forces in 2014, with a staff of 751, had 707 men in service for the same reason. At the same time, there is evidence that General Makarov, creating the Russian S.O.F., actively adopted the experience of Western colleagues – the French, Germans and Italians (Italians are traditionally strong in the training of naval combat swimmers). In 2012, in order to exchange experience, General Makarov visited a similar American S.O.F. training center in Tampa (Florida).
Nevertheless, the creation of the S.O.F. units, not included in the GRU, but tied directly to the leadership of the General Staff, went slowly because of funding problems and quiet bureaucratic sabotage. Now, the Russian S.O.F. – one of the best in the world, as shown by the experience of Syria.
So, where is here the Skripals, attempt of revolution in Montenegro, Bashirov and Petrov, the Bulgarian arms dealer and Hillary Clinton? All the more tied in one knot by the NYT’s “sources.” Texts like the one published by the NYT are created solely to maintain interest in a faded topic.
The main message of the article: be afraid of the Russians, especially their GRU, which is prone to cruelty (these are actual words of one of the “American experts”).
Having discovered a new three-letter combination – GRU – two years ago, the Western media consistently hammers into this one point: the Russians have some terrible brigades of murderers, from whom no one is protected because of their brutality. Evidence-zero. There is not even an elementary knowledge base on this topic, and to visit the 11th Park street and knock on the crumbling fence is really scary.
We can, of course, ignore this. What this leads to we saw on the example of almost daily mockery of the Russian military intelligence. Surely, the Russian intelligence services will remain silent this time, providing a lot of food for thought to those who will continue to invent schemes of involvement of Russian military units in something off color.
By the way, Gebrev traded Bulgarian and Russian made weapons to the Middle East through the channels of the CIA and managed to annoy half of the Arab world, in addition to the CIA and Israel. Maybe, the NYT should dig somewhere in there?
The featured image: Russian Spetsnaz Special Operation Forces
I can, and do, write better fiction than this ‘article’ promulgated by what was once a ‘respected’ source of ‘news’ in SehSha, supposedly ‘written’ by one ‘Michael Schwirtz’.
My dear Mr. Schwirtz, the way to write fiction is to have some nuggets of truth in the writings to make it believable. My dear sir, here are examples of real fiction with just enough truth inside to make it not only understandable but believable.
An Incident On Simonka, Nato Is Invited To Leave Sevastopol One Way Or The Other. Fact. There is, indeed, a ‘Ulitsya Симонка’, Simonka Street, on the north side of Sevastopol in Rahdio Ghorka Region, the east end at the ring. Is there a ‘Ulitsya Леваневского’, Levanevskogo Street, going from the ring at Simonka St. down to the ferry landing? Yes. Is there a ferry Jupiter and FFG 42 Klakring? Yes, or was, Klakring is out of service in either late 2013 or 2014. Ferry Jupiter is extant as of this date, 20.10.19. Is there a Baptist Church on Simonka right across the street from a Russian base of considerable size? Yes. Is there a ‘specialist’ base next to 35th Battery Museum on the far southwest side of Sevastopol? Yes. Was 35th Battery Museum the C&C nexus for Russian Spring of 2014? Yes, publicly affirmed on 03 July 2018, but everyone who lived in Sevastopol during Russian Spring knew exactly where and what the C&C center was. Is there only one road going to Battery Museum? Yes. Is there a 317 Independent Spetznaz Regiment that speaks only English? Darned if I know, but at least not with that unit number.
You see, my dear Mr. Schwirtz, enough nuggets of truth to be believable, unlike your little fairy tale, and enough fiction to be interesting, again unlike your little fairy tale. When you are writing to the public, my dear sir, at least do a minimum of research and verification of fact, which you clearly, and blatantly, did not do in any way, shape or form. However, your little fairy tale can be, I suppose, published in short book form on Amazon. Look for the genre ‘fiction written as truth that defies any credibility whatsoever’. Nice try, my dear sir, and it must be admitted that you at least gave us a good laugh, said laugh tinged with derision. If you wish to discuss ways to enhance your attempts at fiction, don’t ask me, I won’t give you any help beyond what I just wrote for you.
Auslander
Author
Never The Last One, paperback edition. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1521849056 A deep look in to Russia, her culture and her Armed Forces, in essence a look at the emergence of Russian Federation.
An Incident On Simonka, paperback edition. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1696160715 NATO Is Invited To Leave Sevastopol, One Way Or The Other.
Sevastopol, The Third Defense 2013-2014, https://www.amazon.com/dp/1698430825 The Old Guard Moves South.
Auslander
That Skripal case was one of the most incredibly stupid things I have see in my entire life. Russians are accused of using military nerve gas (of all things) to assassinate a former (and forgotten) operative. If that was true, the streets would have been covered with dead bodies, as I believe that a mere 2 grams can kill 500 people. And how was that nerve gas smuggled into England ? In the suitcases of the two Russian operatives ! Brilliant move by them ! The point is that the Western corporate media will continue with it’s anti Russian rhetoric, as NATO is now stuck watching Russia, instead of moving into the country after it was destabilized, as originally planned. And NATO does cost a huge amount of money to maintain, and Europe is none too pleased to pay it. We shall continue watching anti Russian rhetoric, as the Western elites are at the moment incapable of doing anything else.
The killer blow, the farce/tragedy that followed the pure farce, was the ‘poisoning’ of the two down and outers, with ‘Novichok’ that lay in a charity bin, unemptied for four months, that was still inside its plastic-sealed box. That lunacy, while the charade/pantomime/cabaret show of the police investigation was ripping the roof off the Skripal house, and the Skripals have disappeared ENTIRELY, and, one suspects, forever, would have been laughed into parodic oblivion by an honest, sane, decent and rational media, but that is NOT what we have in the glorious West-exactly the opposite, in fact.
The funniest moments were when e.g. the “highly contaminated ambulance” which carried the Skripals…was suddenly parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in a community some distance from Salisbury…also the two guys outside the restaurant, completely covered in ABC suits and doing their business – whilst the police and public were walking right past them…with no attempt to separate the two guys from the public… Then the killer punch that KOd the charade, when the chief Medic of the Hospital announced publicly that “no one was admitted with any nerve agent poisoning”…but “three people had been treated and now released as they were out of danger.”..
To me (as well as Russian military observers) this was a simple case of food poisoning from eating crustaceans…
A few weeks before the incident there was a fictional TV programme which described a scenario which Boris Johnson had seen and was inspired by…which his fertile imagination then used, to help Theresa May deflect media attention from her inept handling of the Windrush Affair… the Grenfell Tower tragedy… Brexit….The Child Abuse Scandal…Theresa May seemed to blossom in Parliament, once Boris helped concoct the whole Skripal stuff….
When the Skripal fable first hit the news I read as far as Russian nerve agent Novichok, had a chuckle, thought “who will buy horse crap!” to myself, and stopped any further pursuit of info as it was obviously garbage. I overheard further details, each making less sense, as time went on. I half expected to see a report that “Putin wuz here” was spray painted nearby. I thought I would amuse myself and see what people I knew thought about it. My amusement was short lived and quickly progressed to baffled then disappointed and settled between discouraged and disgusted. It was almost universally swallowed hook, line, and sinker. A few “I dunno’s” was the best it got. When I pressed people to think about it logically I’d basically get a shrug and “that’s what they said on the news.” In the face of all logic and reason, discounting all further proof that the official story was pure fiction, as though it didn’t exist, these people will believe anything their t.v. or news feed tells them. A guy in a cave in Afghanistan masterminding 9/11 to one of the world’s leading nation’s intelligence apparatus attempting the dumbest operation in the history of intelligence to kill someone inconsequential with as little plausible deniability as possible. Wow! Seems like if you owned/controlled a media corporation you could really convince people of anything, all evidence to the contrary.
I refer to it as the “Homer Simpson Syndrome” … “if the TV (now phones) says it, it must be true”
No matter how absurd.
70+ years of Sodium Fluoride, movies-TV-cell phones has had an effect.
Take care
West Media, aka Presstikaka, or Prostikaka, seems to have intelligence roughly akin to that an amoeba crawling through protozoan mush, let alone the intelligence quotient of west ‘government’ who make amoeba look like Einstein. Only a brain dead drug addict would begin to believe the horse droppings of the skripal affair, but ‘mainstream media’ trumpeted it as truth so it must be true. And I’ve got some prime ocean front property in the middle of the Gobi desert I’d be willing to part with, but your wallet better be heavy, it ain’t cheap.
This anti Russia horse feathers won’t be over soon, if ever. More’s the pity for that, and there’s no rhyme or reason for the horse feathers.
Auslander
Facts? The presstitute filth wouldn’t know a fact if it was slapped in their faces. Demonise, demonise, and keep demonising. Russia evil, China evil, Iran evil, Hezbollah evil, etc etc. Designated enemies of the Empire are to be smeared, slandered and lied about repeatedly. Regardless of how illogical or idiotic the lies against them. Sadly, most believe them.
Keep the masses fearful. And distracted. And keep spending billions upon billions on ‘defence’, so people can feel…. safe.
Remove Russian ‘propaganda sites’ from the Internet, delete and suspend Facebook and Twitter accounts, smear anyone as a Russian agent or conspiracy theorist who talks about US regime change operations.
Like Tulsi Gabbard for example.
Excellent article, although I am going to write some fantasy, as Aus suggests. Lets say that GRU got infested with western-robots, therefore the question is simple: what do we do with them? The answer is usually simple. You knock them off in order to clean house. Everybody does it. In the west they get killed in some mysterious accidents (plane crushes, cars, drownings) or prescription drug overdose, but the funniest are: they commit suicide with three taps to their head or they hang themselves in empty cell while there is nothing to be used for the job. MSM puts those incidents to sleep immediately and nobody is allowed to talk or write about them
Hallo Anonius
May I toss in an ancient Chinook Helo “crash” or “shoot down” called “Extortion 17”
OFF TOPIC:
Chile wakes up! Massive unprecedented protest, Riots and the goverment put a curfew and the military on the streets. There are already dead people killed by the military.
This is NOT a color Revolution!!!!!!!!!!! This is against the Empire, against the abuse to the people.
No Pasarán!!!!
One would have thought after the horror of Pinochet the people would never tolerate a right wing neo liberal Government ever again.
Bulgarians have a very good saying, which describes perfectly the behaviour of the western presstitutes:
Аз да кажа, че сестра ти е курва; пък ти върви доказвай, че нямаш сестра.
Roughly translated in english it means:
I’ll say that your sister is a whore – good luck with proving that you don’t have a sister at all.
“Аз да кажа, че сестра ти е курва; пък ти върви доказвай, че нямаш сестра.
Roughly translated in english it means:
I’ll say that your sister is a whore – good luck with proving that you don’t have a sister at all.”
Love it! Many thanks!!
Auslander
This is obviously a ‘tongue in cheek’ comment – which, to paraphrase Teresa May said ‘it was ‘highly likely’ that the Russians were responsible for the Skripal poisoning.
It was obviously GRU – as in the children’s film series Despicable Me – agent GRU, who even speaks with a Russian accent, that likely poisoned the Skripals. Ha! Ha!
The NYT is just a Big Lie Propaganda paper now. It used to have a liberal bias, but the publisher from 1991-2016 believed in moral relativism and no such thing as objective truth. The NYT is stocked from top to bottom with people of this world view,
Avengers;Endgame had 2.8 $ billion in ticket sales. In the movie the Black Widow, real name Natasha Romanov, born in the USSR and former KGB agent, gives the last full measure of devotion, heroically dying ,letting the other Avengers defeat the super villain and saving earth. Don’t know if Marvel did it deliberately or God maneuvered Hollywood on his chessboard. A new movie starring Nastasha Romanov is coming out next year. A Russian former KGB agent is going to be the star!
While on a visit to family in the US in 2017, I was surprised how readily my family members were prepared to believe the nonsense coming from the various news programs. Apparently, evidence is unnecessary to many Americans as long as the news is from a government source (ie. Pompeo – “Iran did it!!”. As an example, consider this mythical broadcast by a news anchor:
“Breaking news just in!! An intelligence source has reported an asset within the Kremlin released information concerning President Putin. It is reported he throws sex parties in his Sochi dacha with young women, and maintains a small heard of sheep that are included in the festivities; Putin has a favorite named Sasha. More to come on this breaking story.”
How many Americans would believe this nonsense is true? Far too many I fear.
”It is reported he throws sex parties in his Sochi dacha with young women, and maintains a small heard of sheep that are included in the festivities; Putin has a favorite named Sasha. More to come on this breaking story.”
Sounds interesting, especially the concluding sentence. It means that the sheep and the women are, in fact, Western presstitutes. Enjoy!
Australian media outlets are currently running a campaign against the governments ongoing attempts to intimidate any remaining backbone out of our presstitutes. Their idiotic effort today was to redact the front page of all newspapers.
Their campaign would look a lot less pathetic if they had stood up against our governments abandonment of Assange, or properly investigated any number of stories they have quietly let whither and die from lack of journalistic diligence and competence.
Most could not find their arse, with both hands and a flashlight. The truth will safely avoid most of them forever, and if they do find it their editors will make absolutely sure it never gets into print.
It is wondrous how with the West nothing goes to waste. Even the sci-fi story of the failed coupe in Montenegro, the last European NATO dictatorship where the mafia boss Djukanovic has been in power for the last 30 years. Uninterrupted. Even Frau Merkel with her 15-16 years in power is put to shame by Mr Djukanovic, the so-called the King of Tobacco. The above-mentioned “coup attempt” (they even claimed that it was an assassination attempt) happened in the eve of the election which directly resulted in Montenegro joining NATO. The membership was voted in in the Parliament and no referendum was ever held because more than half of the population of this tiny tiny country of 600,000 was against the membership. The whole charade was organised by Djukanovic himself and supported by the current pro-NATO and pro-EU stooges in power in Serbia who confirmed that some imaginary stash of weapons intended for the “conspirators” were allegedly found in Serbia proper.
Never mind that if the Russians really wanted someone dead that someone would probably die.
So the “failed coup” in Montenegro is right there next the the Scripal affair in the chance of ever being organised by Russia. It is just there so the media whores all over the West and the colonies can call upon it to fill the blanks in their vacuous story telling.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7595397/British-spooks-expose-Russian-based-cyber-hacking-gang-Turla-targeted-UK-organisation.html
…… somewhat sceptical……….
Enjoyed the read.
What would truly be “news” is for the warmongering cheerleader NYT to actually publish ANYTHING that is truthful/honest or accurate.
The NYT has been complete garbage since Judith Miller and the 2002 NYT cheerleading to take the US into a ME clusterfu…. ah “Charles foxtrot”.
16 years later and it has only gotten much worse.
Reading the NYT decreases ones IQ.