In a report, the New York Times argues that Russian intelligence is using an elite espionage unit whose sole objective is to carry out operations to subvert European political and economic systems.
The unit has reportedly carried out a number of intelligence operations in recent years, ranging from espionage to disinformation campaigns and even killings.
The Times quoted "four western officials”Who claimed the group is known as 29155 unit and operates within the main leadership of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, commonly known as CRANE. Presumably it has been around for at least 10 years, but has only recently been discovered by Western intelligence agencies. Unit 29155 came out in 2016 after it became known that an elite unit of Russian spies tried to organize a coup in the small Balkan country of Montenegro. At the time, the former Yugoslav Republic was trying to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Russian intelligence agents have been alleged to have made a failed attempt to kill its prime minister to lift the population towards a pro-Russian coup.
According to the document, Western intelligence officials do not have a clear picture of the structure of Unit 29155, nor are they able to predict where it will strike next. The group is believed to be made up of a very small component of intelligence officers led by the major general Andrei V. Averyanov, a veteran of the Chechen wars. The existence of the unit is so secret that other GRU agents are unlikely to have heard of it either, the Times said. Unit members often travel to Europe to conduct sabotage and disinformation campaigns, kill targets, or conduct other forms of what some experts describe as the Kremlin hybrid war. They tend to travel economy in order to avoid attention, the NYT says.
The Times reached the Kremlin to ask a series of questions about Unit 29155. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov suggested that the questions be addressed to the Russian Ministry of Defense, but Defense did not answer any questions.