Who are the GRU and Spetsnaz, Russia’s military intelligence services connected to the Salisbury attacks and what do they do?
THE two suspected in the Salisbury Novichok poisoning are believed to be officers of the Russian Military Intelligence Agency, the GRU.
But who are the GRU, what is their main purpose, and what proof exists that they were involved in the chemical weapons attack? We take a closer look at the agency.
Who are the GRU and Spetsnaz?
Unlike Russia′s other security and intelligence agencies, such as the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Federal Security Service (FSB), whose heads report directly to the Russian president (Putin), the Director of GRU answers to the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Until 2010, the GRU combined a military intelligence service and Special Forces.
The GRU is Russia’s largest foreign intelligence agency and deploys six times more agents abroad than the SVR, successor of the KGB’s foreign operations directorate.
The GRU also commands around 25,000 Spetsnaz troops.
Spetsnaz, which translates to Special Purpose Military Units, is an umbrella term for Special Forces in Russia and the term is used in a number of post-Soviet states.
Historically, the term referred to special military units controlled by the GRU, but it also describes special purpose units or task forces of other ministries like the Ministry of Internal Affairs ODON and Ministry of Emergency Situations' special rescue unit.
What are the main Russian intelligence agencies?
There are a number of intelligence agencies across Russia, but the most well known are:
- Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), an agency concerned with collection of intelligence outside the Commonwealth of Independent States
- Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), since 2010 officially the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GU), an intelligence service of the Russian Armed Forces
- Federal Security Service (FSB), an agency responsible for counter-intelligence and other aspects of state security as well as intelligence-gathering in some countries, primarily those of the CIS
The SVR and FSB are both successors to the USSR’s KGB, and run independently from each other.
Both agencies report directly to Vladimir Putin, who under law is in charge of directing them.
The GRU is a structural component of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and reports to the Chief of the General Staff and the Defence Minister.
What do these special units do?
An intelligence agency works for the government and is responsible for the collection, analysis and exploitation of information in order to provide support for law enforcement, national security, military and foreign policy objectives.
These special units gather information using both overt and covert methods.
This can include espionage, communication interception, and cryptanalysis.
Foreign intelligence gathering might relate to the political or economic activities of foreign states.
Some agencies have been involved in assassination, arms trafficking, coups d'état, and the placement of misinformation or propaganda in order to support their own or their government's interests.
Russian intelligence agencies actively recruit Russian citizens who live in foreign countries but are still fiercely loyal to their home country.
How are Russia’s military intelligence services connected to the Salisbury attacks?
Novichok victim and former spy Sergei Skripal was a notable defector from the GRU and was potentially targeted while in Salisbury for his “betrayal”.
He was allegedly attacked with the nerve agent by two Russian GRU officers who have been named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
A European arrest warrant has been issued for the pair, and photographs and CCTV footage have been released to help identify them.
The CPS said there was enough evidence to charge them with conspiracy to murder, and over the death of another victim, Dawn Sturgess, whose husband found a bottle containing the nerve agent by chance.
The suspects were caught on CCTV in Salisbury at 11.58am on Sunday, March 4, “moments before the attack”, police said.
It is understood Petrov and Boshirov stayed in the City Stay Hotel in Bow, East London, during their time in the UK.
Cops searching their room on May 4 - almost two months after the attack in Salisbury - are said to have discovered minute traces of Novichok.
Police said the nerve agent was brought into Britain in a Ninna Ricci Premier Jour perfume bottle with a specially made poison applicator.
The UK government has accused the GRU of being behind four high-profile cyber attacks.
Firms in Russia and Ukraine, the US Democratic Party and a small TV network in the UK have all been hacked, according to the National Cyber Security Centre.
MORE ON THE RUSSIAN SPY POISONING
What happens now?
Moscow has continued to deny involvement in the attack.
Theresa May told the United Nations Security Council on September 6, 2018: "We have taken appropriate action, with our allies, and we will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure our collective security.
"Russia has only sought to obfuscate through desperate fabrication."
Britain charged two Russians in absentia on September 5 with the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury following the nerve agent assault in March.
A European Arrest Warrant and Interpol red notice were issued for Petrov and Boshirov's detention, according to reports.
The CPS said there was enough evidence to charge them with conspiracy to murder.
But Russia claims it has “no reason” to investigate the Salisbury Novichok suspects and slammed “unacceptable” claims the Kremlin was behind the attack.
In recent times investigative website Bellingcat revealed the person travelling under the alias of Ruslan Boshirov was actually GRU’s Col Anatoliy Chepiga, a recipient of Russia’s highest state award.
The website later also revealed Alexander Petrov to in fact be Dr. Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin, a trained military doctor in the employ of the GRU. Mishkin's grandmother disappeared after she accidentally revealed his identity.23