Russia paid to assassinate NATO soldiers with a unit that also operated in Spain

A Russian media outlet published information yesterday that sheds light on who was behind many of the Taliban attacks against NATO.

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Russian GRU paid terrorist groups to kill NATO soldiers

In a report published by The Insider, a Russian anti-Putin media outlet based in Riga, Latvia, journalists Roman Dobrokhotov, Hristo Grozev and Michael Weiss discuss the activities of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation (GRU), Russia's military intelligence service, in Afghanistan against the military forces of the United States and its NATO allies:

"For years, the GRU paid various terrorist groups in Afghanistan for attacks against US and coalition forces. The Insider was able to not only find evidence of the existence of such a program, but also identify the specific GRU officers who participated in it. To transfer money to Taliban militants and other groups, Russian intelligence services maintained a network of Afghan couriers disguised as a company that traded in precious stones. After their mission was accomplished, the couriers were given Russian documents and asylum in Russia."

The Insider notes that "between 2016 and 2020, a series of bloody terrorist attacks against US soldiers and coalition forces took place in Afghanistan, and these attacks only ended after Trump concluded an agreement with the Taliban in early 2020 on the withdrawal of US troops." The story adds: "US and Afghan intelligence services knew that these terrorist attacks were funded by Russia."

This activity was carried out by GRU Unit 29155

On August 17, 2021, The New York Times reported that "Russia Secretly Offered Bounties to Afghan Militants for Killing American Troops", adding: "The Trump administration has been deliberating for months over what to do with a startling intelligence assessment." The American newspaper added:

"The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.

Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion."

In its report yesterday, The Insider notes the following:

"Insider’s investigation not only uncovered evidence corroborating the 2020 intelligence report, it also found that Afghan intelligence agencies provided US authorities with data on the program and arrested several key facilitators of the bounty scheme. At the same time, US and Afghan intelligence agencies knew little about the people running the program on the Russian side, as many of the Russian operators were known only by call signs or pseudonyms. The new data uncovered by Insider fills in the gaps, identifying the officers hiding behind the codenames: these are officers from the same 29155 military unit known for the Skripal poisoning and sabotage in Europe."

Russia has been trying to interfere in Afghanistan since 2001

In its investigative news story, The Insider notes that it "spoke to four former Afghan government officials, three of whom held senior positions in the National Security Directorate (NSD), the former General Security Agency, before the Taliban seized power in the country in 2021." The Insider adds:

"According to them, Russia attempted to interfere in the situation in the country immediately after the creation of the Afghan Interim Administration in December 2001. Initially, the Kremlin sabotaged the US-led intervention in the country through its networks in local intelligence agencies and the military established during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. However, these networks have largely lost their usefulness following the US-led reforms and purge of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANSF). Then, according to former officials, Iran offered mediation services in relations with Taliban commanders to supply them with Russian weapons and money. Later, the GRU established direct contacts with the Taliban. At first it was the recruitment of individual militants, then the supply of weapons and ammunition via Tajikistan, and finally the financing of terrorist attacks."

GRU Unit 29155 was involved in the separatist coup in Catalonia in 2017

It should be remembered that Unit 29155 of the GRU was in charge of the Russian plot for the separatist coup in Catalonia in 2017. According to information published on November 2, 2023 by the digital newspaper El Español, this unit of Russian military intelligence did "prior work of destabilization and espionage" that culminated in a Russian agent offering Carles Puigdemont, then president of the Catalan regional government, Moscow's support for the secession of Catalonia.

The amnesty approved by Sánchez blocked the investigation into the activity of that Russian unit

The most alarming thing is that, as the Spanish media pointed out, the amnesty granted by Pedro Sánchez to his separatist partners also implied erasing the crimes of the Russian spies of that Unit 29155 of the GRU in the separatist coup of 2017. In fact, in November of last year, the Minister of the Presidency, the socialist Félix Bolaños, stated that "there has been no Russian plot in support of Catalan independence", simply because his government has decided not to investigate it as payment to his separatist partners for their support.

So, with this amnesty, not only are crimes committed by Sánchez's government partners erased, but also, for partisan reasons, the trace of the activity of Russian military intelligence in Spain is erased, putting our national security at risk and thereby benefiting the GRU, the same intelligence service that paid to kill NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, in a deployment in which Spain actively participated. I wonder how long it will take for this to reach the courts, because it is scandalous.

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Photos: U.S. Marine Corps / U.S. Air Force.