How Russians from the GRU neutralized CIA spies and American diplomats with a secret weapon: “Moscow committed an act of war”

An investigation carried out by the American journalists of the show “60 Minutes”, the German publication “Der Spiegel” and the independent Russian website “The Insider” claims that agents of Moscow, from a special unit of the GRU, are behind the mysterious incidents, called the Havana Syndrome , which have affected American spies, diplomats and officials over the past ten years. However, an official US investigation determined in 2023 that the abnormal health incidents were highly unlikely to have been caused by a foreign power

By the Observator editorial team on 01.04.2024, 11:55

The team of journalists from The Insider website, led by Christo Grozev, in collaboration with Der Spiegel (Germany) and 60 Minutes (CBS News) discovered evidence linking the mysterious Havana Syndrome to the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. More precisely, the GRU unit 29155, which was also accused in the past of the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, would have used “directed energy weapons” to attack American diplomats or personnel of the diplomatic corps.

Havana syndrome first came to public attention in 2017, after more than 20 US officials stationed in Havana, Cuba complained of strange medical conditions. Since then, more than 100 cases have been reported from Guangzhou to Washington. Victims include US diplomats, spies, military officers, businessmen and, in some cases, spouses, children and even pets. According to the investigation, the first of these attacks actually took place in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2014.

What are Directed Energy Weapons?

The attacks were allegedly carried out with what The Insider calls “directed energy weapons” developed after years of scientific research dating back to the Soviet era. It is not yet clear how it works. This type of weapon can have permanent and, in some cases, seriously debilitating medical consequences.

Symptoms vary from chronic headaches, ringing in the ears, vertigo, insomnia, nausea, lasting psychophysiological disturbances to blindness or even hearing loss. Many victims were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, forcing them to leave government service permanently.

One of the victims is a nurse and the wife of a US embassy official in Tbilisi, Georgia. According to The Insider’s investigation, Joy suffered an attack in 2021, in front of her house, and since then, for three years, she has had headaches every day. The woman has already undergone two surgeries and will need a third to treat “rapid deterioration of the temporal bone, a condition that her neurosurgeon cannot explain.”

How GRU agents neutralized American diplomats with a secret weapon

The Insider, along with Der Spiegel and 60 Minutes, were able to geolocate agents associated with Unit 29155 before or at the time of the reporting of such anomalous health incidents, or AHI. Unlike other teams within the GRU, Unit 29155 was not created to spy or gather intelligence, but focuses entirely on violent military operations. The name of Egor Gordienko, a GRU agent, is linked to the alleged attack in Frankfurt in 2014, and to the one in Tbilisi, General Andrei Averianov, the head of unit 29155.

There is evidence that senior members of this unit have received awards and promotions for their work in developing “non-lethal acoustic weapons,” a term used by Russian intelligence and specialist “military literature” to describe directed energy devices based on sound and radio frequency .

A former CIA official told investigators that Unit 29155’s mission is “to find, solve and terminate, all in support of Vladimir Putin’s imperial dreams.” According to the journalistic investigation, a remarkable detail is that many of the victims of these attacks have expertise or operational experience in Georgia, Ukraine or Russia. In the past two decades, both Georgia and Ukraine have experienced “color revolutions” that President Vladimir Putin attributes to the influence of the CIA.

According to the quoted source, Putin would aim “to neutralize American intelligence officials whom he considered responsible for the loss of former satellites or parts that were part of the former Soviet empire.” Several US officials associated with the CIA’s work in Ukraine later suffered abnormal health incidents around the world, particularly after 2014 and the annexation of Crimea.

Moreover, the anomalous health incidents affecting the staff of the US Embassy in Kiev were so worrying that one of them chose “to resign from the CIA altogether in order not to become the fourth victim”.

Why would the US hide the truth about the attacks that cause the Havana Syndrome

The journalistic investigation also raises serious questions about how the US responded to these attacks and claims that US intelligence agencies have adopted the “nothing to see here” strategy. In March 2023, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) issued a redacted report concluding that it was “highly unlikely” that a foreign adversary would cause Havana Syndrome. Victims of the attacks said they were shocked by the outcome of this report, and many of them feel betrayed by the US government.

“What this (official) investigation has shown is that either the intelligence community is incapable of performing its most basic function or has attempted to cover up the facts and manipulate the injured employees and the public,” one victim told The Insider. In 2021, the Biden Administration passed the Havana Act, which provides significant compensation for victims of confirmed Havana Syndrome.

According to investigative journalism, two theories are currently circulating as to why the US government would hide the truth about the nature of these attacks. First, publishing all the information about these attacks could convince the American public that Moscow had committed an act of war. The second theory is that if the US officially acknowledged that Havana Syndrome was caused by a foreign adversary, this could undermine recruitment for the CIA or the State Department.

The media investigation also shows that if the Kremlin is found responsible for these attacks, the elimination of intelligence experts through such attacks could become “one of Vladimir Putin’s greatest strategic victories against the United States.”