Colonel (abbreviated as Col. , Col , or COL ) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
97-555: Sergei Viktorovich Skripal (Russian: Сергей Викторович Скрипаль , IPA: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ skrʲɪˈpalʲ] ; born 23 June 1951) is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the United Kingdom's intelligence services during the 1990s and early 2000s. In December 2004, he was arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and later tried, convicted of high treason , and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He settled in
194-634: A Trotskyite during the Stalinist purges ). Military intelligence was known for its fierce independence from the rival "internal intelligence organizations" , such as the NKVD , and later KGB ; however, public statements of Soviet military intelligence veterans state the Fourth Directorate, and later GRU, had always been operationally subordinate to the KGB. Military intelligence was headquartered in
291-466: A 70-year-old retired army colonel, identified only as "Martin M." was believed to have spied for Russia for years. The officer in question, whose name was not disclosed and who might have been approached under a false flag , was reported to have been engaged in selling official secrets to his GRU handlers from 1992 until September 2018. In July 2019, Austria's Ministry of the Interior confirmed that
388-552: A colonel was typically in charge of a regiment in an army. Modern usage varies greatly, and in some cases, the term is used as an honorific title that may have no direct relationship to military. In some smaller military forces, such as those of Monaco or the Vatican , colonel is the highest rank . Equivalent naval ranks may be called captain or ship-of-the-line captain . In the Commonwealth 's air force ranking system,
485-427: A contract and set of written rules, also referred to as the colonel's regiment or standing regulation(s). By extension, the group of companies subject to a colonel's regiment (in the foregoing sense) came to be referred to as his regiment (in the modern sense) as well. In French usage of this period, the senior colonel in the army or, in a field force, the senior military contractor, was the colonel general , and, in
582-628: A cover for GRU preparing infrastructure for a surprise attack on Finnish locations in case of a conflict situation. Viktor Ilyushin, a GRU operative working as an Air Force deputy attaché, was expelled from France in 2014 for attempted espionage of the staff of François Hollande . In August 2015, a GRU unit posing as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant supporters called CyberCaliphate took TV5Monde offline for approximately 18 hours. GRU's APT – Fancy Bear used fake Facebook accounts to pose as associates of Emmanuel Macron 's campaign staff, with
679-796: A deterioration in his health and is being treated by doctors". On 7 June 2020, The Sunday Times reported that Sergei and his daughter had been settled in New Zealand under new identities. A few weeks later, the New Zealand Herald raised several doubts about the report. GRU (Russian Federation) The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation , formerly
776-653: A fierce rivalry, GRU is known to have been involved in several high-profile episodes; this included opening backchannel negotiations with the U.S. government during the Cuban Missile Crisis and contributing to the Profumo scandal that partly contributed to the fall of a British administration. GRU was distinguished for its "closer ties with revolutionary movements and terrorist groups, greater experience with weapons and explosives, and even tougher training for recruits"; new recruits were allegedly shown footage of
873-528: A house near Málaga at his disposal, provided by his handlers. According to Russian prosecutors, he began working for the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in 1995 and passed on state secrets, such as the identities of Russian intelligence agents. After his retirement, he worked in the Household Department of the Russian foreign ministry , while continuing to work for MI6. He
970-734: A land improvement contractor, while his mother was employed with the local Council of Deputies. He grew up in the town of Ozyorsk , also in Kaliningrad Oblast. In 1972, Skripal completed the Zhdanov military engineering school in Kaliningrad , located in the village of Borisovo (formerly Kraußen (Königsberg) ) with the qualification of a sapper - paratrooper . He then studied at the Moscow Military Engineering Academy and subsequently served in
1067-404: A professional military rank that was still held typically by an officer in command of a regiment or equivalent unit. Along with other ranks, it has become progressively more a matter of ranked duties, qualifications, and experience, as well as of corresponding titles and pay scale, than of functional office in a particular organization. As European military influence expanded throughout the world,
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#17327755480951164-586: A secretary. Nikolayevich, along with an SVR officer, had reportedly tried to gather intelligence on the country's electricity infrastructure on behalf of Venezuela's Maduro government. On 17 April 2021, the Czech Republic announced its intelligence agencies had concluded that GRU officers, namely members of Russian military intelligence GRU's unit 29155 , were involved in two massive ammunition depot explosions in Vrbetice (part of Vlachovice ), near
1261-564: A security screening to enter GRU headquarters. Following the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, the GRU continued as an important part of Russia's intelligence services, especially since it was the only one to more or less maintain operational and institutional continuity: the KGB had been dissolved after aiding a failed coup in 1991 against the then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev . It
1358-488: A similar way that brigadier is linked to brigade , although in English this relationship is not immediately obvious. With the shift from primarily mercenary to primarily national armies in the course of the 17th century, a colonel (normally a member of the aristocracy) became a holder (German Inhaber ) or proprietor of a military contract with a sovereign. The colonel purchased the regimental contract—the right to hold
1455-560: A small and nondescript complex west of the Kremlin, whereas the NKVD was in the very centre of Moscow, next to the building that housed People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs at the bottom of Kuznetsky Most . Consequently, Soviet military intelligence came to be known in Soviet diplomats' cant as distant neighbours (Russian: дальние соседи ) as opposed to the near neighbours of
1552-500: A traitorous officer being fed into a crematorium alive. The existence of the GRU was not publicized during the Soviet era, though it was mentioned in the 1931 memoirs of the first OGPU defector, Georges Agabekov , and described in detail in the 1939 autobiography, I Was Stalin's Agent, by Walter Krivitsky , the most senior Red Army intelligence officer ever to defect. GRU became widely known in Russia, and outside narrow confines of
1649-724: A visit to Saint Petersburg ; Skripal's older brother died within the two years before the poisoning. Both Skripal's wife and his son are buried in a cemetery local to Salisbury. In May 2018, The New York Times reported that Skripal, though retired, was "still in the game". While living in Britain, he had travelled to other countries, meeting with intelligence officials of the Czech Republic , Estonia , and Colombia , most likely discussing Russian spying techniques. In June 2016, he travelled to Estonia to meet local spies. Russian exile Valery Morozov told Channel 4 News Sergei Skripal
1746-620: Is an aggressive and well-funded organization which has the direct support of – and access to – President Vladimir Putin, allowing freedom in its activities and leniency with regards to diplomatic and legislative scrutiny." The United States alleges that the GRU, as well as the SVR (its civilian foreign intelligence counterpart), makes use of both legal (intelligence officers with diplomatic protection/official government roles) and illegal operatives. The "Havana syndrome," which affected U.S. diplomats and spies worldwide,
1843-517: Is commanded by Maj. Gen. Andrei Vladimirovich Averyanov [ d ] and based at the headquarters of the 161st Special Purpose Specialist Training Center in eastern Moscow. Its membership included decorated veterans from the Soviet war in Afghanistan and Russia's most recent series of wars in Chechnya and Ukraine . It has been linked to the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea ,
1940-650: Is now succeeded by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the Federal Security Service (FSB). Evidencing its growing strategic profile, in 2006 the GRU moved to a new headquarters complex at Khoroshovskoye Shosse [ ru ] , which cost 9.5 billion rubles to build and incorporates 70,000 square meters. In April 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev fired then-GRU head Valentin Korabelnikov , who had headed
2037-517: Is reputedly Russia's largest foreign-intelligence agency, and is distinguished among its counterparts for its willingness to execute riskier "complicated, high stakes operations". According to unverified statements by Stanislav Lunev , a defector from the GRU, in 1997 the agency deployed six times as many agents in foreign countries as the SVR, and commanded some 25,000 Spetsnaz troops. The first Russian body for military intelligence dates from 1810, in
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#17327755480952134-614: The 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy , four officers working for the GRU Alexander Savva, Dmitry Kazantsev, Aleksey Zavgorodny and Alexander Baranov were arrested by the Counter-Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and were accused of espionage and sabotage . This spy network was managed from Armenia by GRU Colonel Anatoly Sinitsin. A few days later
2231-594: The 2015–2016 DNC hacks in the United States, alleging he played a leading role in the Bundestag hack. In 2018, German officials reported a key data network used by the Chancellery , ministries, and Parliament had been breached. German media attributed the attack to a Russian Government-sponsored hacking group, either Snake/Ouroborus or Fancy Bear. Colonel In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries,
2328-648: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . On 5 September 2018, Major Deniss Metsavas and Pjotr Volin were charged with giving classified information to the GRU The two were convicted in February 2019. In September 2018, Finnish police ran a large scale operation against numerous sites owned by Airiston Helmi Oy company that over years accumulated land plots and buildings close to nationally significant key straits, ports, oil refineries and other strategic locations as well as two Finnish Navy vessels. The security operation
2425-537: The Cold War , the GRU, like many of its Western rivals, maintained rezidenturas , or resident spies, worldwide; these included both "legal" agents, based at Soviet embassies with official diplomatic cover , and "illegal" officers without cover . It also maintained a signals intelligence (SIGINT) station in Lourdes , Cuba and other Soviet-bloc countries . Though less well known than the KGB, with which it shared
2522-714: The Estonian secret service in Tallinn , which enabled them to identify three active Russian undercover operatives. Skripal also worked with the Spanish secret service Centro Nacional de Inteligencia , informing the agency about the Russian organized crime in the Spanish region of Costa del Sol . All the trips were organized and approved by the British foreign intelligence service, MI6. Mark Urban reported that in 2017 Skripal
2619-644: The Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Federal Protective Service (FSO) – whose heads report directly to the president of Russia (see Intelligence agencies of Russia ), the director of the GRU is subordinate to the Russian military command, reporting to the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff . The directorate
2716-706: The Georgian Parliament . Since the mid-1970s the GRU has maintained a satellite communications interception post near Andreyevka, located approximately 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Spassk-Dalny , Primorsky Krai . According to a Western assessment of the GRU seen by Reuters in the autumn of 2018, the GRU had a long-running program to run "illegal" spies, i.e. those who work without diplomatic cover and who live under an assumed identity in foreign countries for years. The assessment said: "It plays an increasingly important role in Russia's development of Information Warfare (both defensive and offensive). It
2813-523: The Home Office rejected the visa application of Sergei Skripal's niece, Viktoria Skripal, because it "did not comply with the immigration rules". Viktoria Skripal had intended to travel to Britain to take Yulia back to Russia. On 30 June 2018, two British Nationals were hospitalized by chemical poisoning in Amesbury , 8 miles (13 km) from Salisbury where Skripal had been attacked. One victim died in
2910-676: The Main Intelligence Directorate , and still commonly known by its previous abbreviation GRU , is the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation . The GRU controls the military intelligence service and maintains its own special forces units . Unlike Russia's other security and intelligence agencies – such as
3007-509: The Metropolitan Police would take over the investigation from Wiltshire Police . Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley , head of Counter Terrorism Policing, appealed for witnesses to the incident following a COBR meeting chaired by Home Secretary Amber Rudd . On 12 March 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May identified the nerve agent used in the attack as a Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok and demanded explanation from
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3104-697: The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court on 30 November 2006. In July 2010, Skripal was pardoned by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev . On 9 July 2010, Skripal and three other Russians, who had been imprisoned for spying for the US, were freed as part of a spy swap . The four men were exchanged for ten Russian agents arrested in the United States as part of the Illegals Program . The UK government insisted on Skripal being included in
3201-651: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (then investigating the Douma chemical attack by Russia-backed Bashar al-Assad and evidence in the Skripal case). Spain has also investigated the travel of Unit 29155 member Denis Sergeev (who has also used the name Sergei Fedotov) to Barcelona in 2017 around the time of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum . The unit is also accused of being behind
3298-565: The United States Department of Justice indicted six Unit 74455 GRU officers for multiple cyberattacks, including the December 2015 Ukraine power grid cyberattack , the 2017 Macron e-mail leaks , the 2017 NotPetya attacks , the 2018 Winter Olympics hack (for which the GRU attempted to frame North Korea ), several 2018 attacks on Skripal case investigators, and a 2018–2019 cyberattack campaign against Georgian media and
3395-556: The codename 'Forthwith'. According to the FSB, Pablo Miller was also involved in efforts to recruit other Russian assets and was in contact with Alexander Litvinenko . In 1996, due to his diabetes , Skripal was sent back to Moscow, where he went on to work in the GRU headquarters and for a while was acting director of the GRU personnel department. Skripal held the rank of colonel when he retired, due to his inadequate health condition, in 1999. He continued to make trips to Spain, where he had
3492-638: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Spetsnaz GRU remained intact as part of the Russian GRU until 2010, when it was reassigned to other agencies. In 2013, however, the decision was reversed and Spetsnaz GRU units were reassigned to GRU divisions and placed under GRU authority again. GRU officers train at a Ministry of Defence military academy at 50 Narodnoe Opolchenie Street, with intelligence agents receiving additional training at
3589-567: The 1990s and was paid $ 100,000 by MI6 for the information. Amid controversial circumstances, he was convicted under "Article 275" of the Russian Criminal Code (high treason in the form of espionage) by the Moscow Regional Military Court in a trial conducted behind closed doors. The prosecution, which was represented by Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky, argued for a 15-year sentence – instead of
3686-462: The 20-year maximum under Article 275 – in recognition of mitigating circumstances such as his cooperation with investigators. Skripal was sentenced to 13 years in a high-security detention facility; he was also stripped of his military rank and decorations. The affair was not revealed to the public until after he was sentenced in August 2006. Skripal's lawyers appealed the sentence, which was upheld by
3783-491: The 2015 poisonings of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Grebev (also spelled Emilyan), the 2016 Montenegro coup attempt , and the poisoning of Russian defector Sergei Skripal . Unit 29155 operatives have also been tracked to Switzerland during the time (early 2018) other GRU units hacked the World Anti-Doping Agency (then investigating state-sponsored doping by Russian Olympians ) and attempted to hack
3880-432: The British intelligence service as an attempted murder . On 29 March 2018, Yulia was reported to be out of critical condition, and was "conscious and talking". A week later, on 6 April, it was announced that Sergei Skripal was no longer in critical condition. He was discharged from hospital on 18 May 2018. Sergei Skripal was born in Kaliningrad , Kaliningrad Oblast , Russian SFSR , on 23 June 1951. His father worked for
3977-1099: The Cherepovets Higher Military School of Radio Electronics. The A.F. Mozhaysky Military-Space Academy has also been used to train GRU officers. According to the Federation of American Scientists : "Though sometimes compared to the US Defense Intelligence Agency , [the GRU's] activities encompass those performed by nearly all joint US military intelligence agencies as well as other national US organizations. The GRU gathers human intelligence through military attaches and foreign agents. It also maintains significant signals intelligence ( SIGINT ) and imagery reconnaissance ( IMINT ) and satellite imagery capabilities." Soviet GRU Space Intelligence Directorate had put more than 130 SIGINT satellites into orbit. GRU and KGB SIGINT network employed about 350,000 specialists. On 9 November 2018 Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that
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4074-725: The Czech-Slovak border, in October 2014. The explosions killed two persons and "inflicted immense material damage, seriously endangered and disrupted the lives of many local residents", according to the Czech prime minister. In 2007, Deniss Metsavas, a Lasnamäe -born member of the Estonian Land Forces , was targeted with a honey trapping operation while visiting Smolensk . He was subsequently blackmailed into providing information to GRU handlers. His father, Pjotr Volin,
4171-507: The FSB and other sources, while in Spain, he was recruited to British intelligence by British intelligence agent Pablo Miller posing as Antonio Alvarez de Hidalgo. According to intelligence sources cited by The Times in March 2018, Skripal was first spotted for potential development as an asset by Spanish intelligence but was approached by the British recruiter around July 1995 and was given
4268-908: The First Department under the General Chief of Staff. In 1836, the intelligence functions were transferred to the Second Department under the General Chief of Staff. After many name-changes through the years, in April 1906, the Military intelligence was carried out by the Fifth Department under the General Chief of Staff of the War Ministry. The GRU's first predecessor in Soviet Russia was established by
4365-420: The French colonel and pronounced it as written. The English then copied the unit and rank from the French. However, for reasons unknown, the English adopted the Spanish pronunciation of coronel , and after several decades of use shortened it to its current two-syllable pronunciation "kernel". Colonel is linked to the word column (from Latin : columna ; Italian: colonna ; French: colonne ) in
4462-445: The GRU since 1997, reportedly over Korabelnikov's objections to proposed reforms. Pursuant to these reforms, the following year, the official name of the unit was changed from "GRU" to the "Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff", or "G.U."; however, "GRU" continues to be commonly used in media. The GRU underwent severe reductions in funding and personnel following the 2008 Russo-Georgian War , during which it failed to discover
4559-486: The GU's 100th anniversary, President Putin proposed restoring the agency's former name: Главное разведывательное управление (GRU). The GRU is organized into numerous directorates, directions, and sections. According to the data available in open sources in 1997, the structure of the Main Directorate consists of at least 12 known directorates and several other auxiliary departments. The American Congressional Research Service , based on interviews with various experts, gives
4656-447: The Institute of the Russian Diaspora. The unit originated from Soviet GLAVPUR ( Glavnoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie , or the Main Political Department) and was created in early 1990s and notably employed colonel Aleksandr Viktorovich Golyev, whose memoirs were published in 2020 along with other GRU documents. In the 1990s, the unit focused on pro-Soviet disinformation in newly split republics such as Lithuania and Chechnya. In later years
4753-464: The NKVD/KGB. The GRU was created under its current name and form by Joseph Stalin in February 1942, less than a year after the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany . From April 1943 the GRU handled human intelligence exclusively outside the USSR. In addition to operations against the Axis powers, GRU is credited with having infiltrated the British nuclear weapon programme and up to 70 American government and scientific institutions. During
4850-442: The Red Army; this included changes to its name, status, and responsibilities. Throughout most of the interwar period, the men and women who worked for Red Army Intelligence called it either the Fourth Department, the Intelligence Service, the Razvedupr , or the RU. […] As a result of the re-organisation [in 1926], carried out in part to break up Trotsky's hold on the army, the Fourth Department seems to have been placed directly under
4947-425: The Regiment (to distinguish it from the military rank of colonel) continues to be used in the modern British Army. The ceremonial position is often conferred on retired general officers , brigadiers or colonels who have a close link to a particular regiment. Non-military personnel, usually for positions within the Army Reserve may also be appointed to the ceremonial position. When attending functions as "Colonel of
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#17327755480955044-440: The Regiment", the titleholder wears the regimental uniform with rank insignia of (full) colonel, regardless of their official rank. A member of the Royal Family is known as a Royal Colonel . A Colonel of the Regiment is expected to work closely with a regiment and its Regimental Association . Some military forces have a colonel as their highest-ranking officer, with no 'general' ranks, and no superior authority (except, perhaps,
5141-458: The Russian government. Two days later, May said that Russia was responsible for the incident and announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation. Russia said that its diplomats were denied access to both Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who is a Russian national. On 31 March 2018 the BBC reported that the UK was considering the Russian Embassy's request, 'in line with its obligations under international and domestic law.' On 6 April,
5238-425: The Russian intelligence's recent operations that appeared to be botched might have been intended for discovery. Similarly, in 2019, Eerik-Niiles Kross , a former Estonian intelligence official, opined that GRU's apparent sloppiness "has become part of the psychological warfare . It's not that they have become that much more aggressive. They want to be felt. It's part of the game." On 2 November 2018, while marking
5335-429: The Sandworm Team or the Main Center for Technologies, used various fictitious online identities ( DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 ) to coordinate the release of the politically sensitive stolen documents with WikiLeaks for "maximum political impact" starting on the eve of the 2016 Democratic National Convention . Its guilt has been reported by American media and a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation. In October 2020,
5432-410: The Soviet Airborne Troops where he was deployed to Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War under the command of Boris Gromov . Skripal was co-opted to the military intelligence ( GRU ) from the Airborne Troops. In the early 1990s, he was posted as a GRU officer at the embassy in Malta . In 1994, he obtained a position in the military attaché ′s office in Madrid , Spain. In 1995, according to
5529-399: The United Kingdom in 2010 following the Illegals Programme spy swap . He holds both Russian and British citizenship . On 4 March 2018, he and his daughter Yulia, a Russian citizen who was visiting him from Moscow, were poisoned with a Russian-developed Novichok nerve agent , and were admitted to Salisbury District Hospital in a critical condition. The poisoning was investigated by
5626-412: The Western intelligence community , during perestroika , due partly to the writings of " Viktor Suvorov " ( Vladimir Rezun ), a GRU officer who defected to Great Britain in 1978 and wrote about his experiences in the Soviet military and intelligence services. According to Suvorov, even the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , the country's de facto leader, needed to undergo
5723-509: The WhisperGate malware against several Ukrainian organizations. The advisory detailed the tactics and techniques used by Unit 29155 and offered further analysis of WhisperGate. Unit 35555 is a socio-psychological research laboratory linked to supporting Wagner and other private military companies. Unit 54777, alternately called the 72nd Special Service Center, is one of the GRU's primary psychological warfare capabilities. Unit 54777 retains several front organizations , including InfoRos and
5820-407: The absence of the sovereign or his designate, the colonel general might serve as the commander of a force. The position, however, was primarily contractual and it became progressively more of a functionless sinecure . The head of a single regiment or demi-brigade would be called a ' mestre de camp ' or, after the Revolution , a ' chef de brigade '. By the late 19th century, colonel had evolved to
5917-473: The alleged Russian bounty program where Taliban militants were paid to kill American troops, although the program's existence is uncertain, unproven, and unverified. The FBI, CISA , and NSA concluded that cyber actors linked to the GRU's 161st Specialist Training Center (Unit 29155) had conducted cyber operations targeting global entities for espionage, sabotage, and reputational harm since at least 2020. Starting on January 13, 2022, these actors deployed
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#17327755480956014-438: The arrested officers were handed over to Russia through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) . Spetsnaz GRU unit No. 48427, an airborne unit, participated in the Russo-Georgian War . The 2015 Bundestag hack was attributed by German intelligence to the GRU. In 2020, Germany issued an arrest warrant for Dmitry Badin, a GRU officer and Unit 26165/ Fancy Bear member also accused of involvement in
6111-508: The attempted 2018 OPCW hack and targeting its investigation into the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), for which the Dutch investigation blames pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists armed with surface-to-air missiles by Russia. Unit 29155 is tasked with foreign assassinations and other covert activities aimed at destabilizing European countries. The Unit is thought to have operated in secret since at least 2008, though its existence only became publicly known in 2019. It
6208-413: The colonel of the division. Kentucky colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky . Commissions for Kentucky colonels are given by the Governor and the Secretary of State to individuals in recognition of noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to a community, state or the nation. This is the equivalent to a full colonel in the militia. The sitting governor of
6305-452: The colonel's handler was a Moscow-born GRU officer Igor Egorovich Zaytsev, a Russian national, for whom an international arrest warrant had been issued. An investigation by Bellingcat and Capital identified GRU officer Denis Vyacheslavovich Sergeev (using the alias Sergey Vyacheslavovich Fedotov) as a suspect in the 2015 poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emiliyan Gebrev ( Емилиян Гебрев ) in Sofia , following an attack that mirrored
6402-411: The context of the Napoleonic Wars raging across Europe, when War Minister Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly proposed to Emperor Alexander I of Russia the formation of the Expedition for Secret Affairs under the War Ministry ( Russian : Экспедиция секретных дел при военном министерстве ); two years later, it was renamed the Special Bureau ( Russian : Особая канцелярия ). In 1815, the Bureau became
6499-475: The control of the monarch or sovereign of a country, the units were also confusingly called coronelas , and their commanders coronels . Evidence of this can be seen when Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba , nicknamed "the Great Captain", divided his armies in coronelías , each led by a coronel , in 1508. Later, in the 16th century, the French army adopted this organizational structure, renaming colunelas regiments. Even so, they simply Gallicized colunela to
6596-409: The control of the State Defense Council (Gosudarstvennaia komissiia oborony, or GKO), the successor of the RVSR. Thereafter its analysis and reports went directly to the GKO and the Politburo, apparently even bypassing the Red Army Staff. The first head of the Fourth Directorate was Yan Karlovich Berzin , who remained in the post from March 1924 until April 1935 (in 1938, he was arrested and executed as
6693-452: The equivalent rank is group captain . By the end of the late medieval period, a group of "companies" was referred to as a "column" of an army. According to Raymond Oliver, c. 1500 , the Spanish began explicitly reorganizing part of their army into 20 colunelas or columns of approximately 1,000–1,250 soldiers. Each colunela was commanded by a cabo de colunela or column head. Because they were crown units who are directly under
6790-427: The expulsion of several Russian Embassy staffers, including the defence attaché to Ottawa . In December 2020, Migración Colombia confirmed the expulsion of two Russian diplomats accused of espionage. One of the assailants was identified as Aleksandr Nikolayevich Belousov who, according to the National Intelligence Directorate of Colombia, is a GRU officer that had been credited by the Russian Embassy in Bogotá as
6887-472: The failed 2018 Salisbury poisoning , and an unprecedented number of disclosed GRU agents. Korobov died on 21 November 2018, "after a serious and prolonged illness", according to the official Defence Ministry statement. His death provoked speculations and unverified reports of him having fallen ill in October that year following a harsh dressing-down from President Vladimir Putin . However, former CIA station-chief Daniel Hoffman cautioned in 2017 that some of
6984-600: The following organization of the GRU, although it acknowledges that the organization's true structure is "a closely guarded secret." 4 Regional Directorates: 11 Mission-Specific Directorates: Unit 26165, also known as Fancy Bear, STRONTIUM, and APT28, is a cyber operations / hacking group . Unit 26165 was originally created during the Cold War as the 85th Main Special Service Center, responsible for military intelligence cryptography . The Netherlands has accused Unit 26165 of also being involved in
7081-418: The goal of interfering with the 2017 French presidential election . Georgy Petrovich Roshka, a member of the GRU's Unit 26165 was involved in the theft of Macron's emails, and subsequent distribution via WikiLeaks . In December 2019, Le Monde reported that the joint effort by British, Swiss, French and U.S. intelligence agencies had discovered an apparent "rear base" of GRU in southeastern France, which
7178-519: The head of state as a titular commander-in-chief) other than the respective national government. Examples include the following (arranged alphabetically by country name): The term colonel is also used as a title for auctioneers in the United States; there are a variety of theories or folk etymologies to explain the use of the term. One of these is the claim that during the American Civil War goods seized by armies were sold at auction by
7275-462: The hospital, and by 15 January 2019, he returned to active duty. On 29 March, Yulia was reported to be out of critical condition, "conscious and talking". On 7 April, the hospital reported that Sergei Skripal was improving rapidly and was no longer in a critical condition, two days after the improvement had been reported in Moscow following a phone call from his daughter. On 18 May 2018, Sergei Skripal
7372-470: The hospital. Police determined they were poisoned by the same Novichok nerve agent used to attempt to assassinate Sergei and his daughter, and Home Secretary Sajid Javid told the House of Commons that the victims had likely been poisoned by the improperly discarded nerve agent used to attack Sergei. On 16 February 2019 The Sunday Times reported, without identifying sources, that Sergei Skripal "has suffered
7469-412: The incident, health authorities checked 21 members of the emergency services and the public for symptoms. Two police officers were treated for possible minor symptoms, said to be itchy eyes and wheezing, while a third, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who had been sent to Sergei Skripal's house, was in a serious condition. By 22 March 2018, Detective Sergeant Bailey had recovered enough to be discharged from
7566-513: The more advanced anti-aircraft weapons obtained by Georgia. However, it continued to play a key role in several Russian operations, including in Russia's intervention in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and the subsequent annexation of Crimea . GRU agents were also implicated in numerous cyberwarfare operations across the West, including in the U.S., France, and Germany. Many of its successes took place during
7663-502: The news magazine Focus reported, referring to a statement of a senior official from NATO 's Allied Command Counter-Intelligence Unit (ACCI) in Mons , that until 2017 Skripal worked for four intelligence agencies of NATO countries. Skripal not only traveled, accompanied by MI6 officials to Prague, where he contributed information about the active Russian spy network, some agents Skripal knew from his active service. He provided information to
7760-421: The position of the colonel as the figurehead of a regiment is maintained in the honorary role of "colonel-in-chief", usually held by a member of the royal family , the nobility, or a retired senior military officer. The colonel-in-chief wears a colonel's uniform and encourages the members of the regiment, but takes no active part in the actual command structure or in any operational duties. The title Colonel of
7857-410: The rank of colonel became adopted by nearly every nation (albeit under a variety of names). During the 20th century, with the rise of communism , some of the large communist militaries saw fit to expand the colonel rank into several grades, resulting, for example, in the unique senior colonel rank, which was found and is still used in such nations as China and North Korea . In many modern armies,
7954-468: The regiment has more importance as a ceremonial unit or a focus of members' loyalty than as an actual battle formation. Troops tend to be deployed in battalions (commanded by a lieutenant colonel ) as a more convenient size of military unit and, as such, colonels have tended to have a higher profile in specialist and command roles than as actual commanders of regiments. However, in Commonwealth armies,
8051-414: The regiment—from the previous holder of that right or directly from the sovereign when a new regiment was formed or an incumbent was killed . As the office of colonel became an established practice, the colonel became the senior captain in a group of companies that were all sworn to observe his personal authority—to be ruled or regimented by him. This regiment, or governance, was to some extent embodied in
8148-536: The secret order signed on 5 November 1918 by Jukums Vācietis , the first commander-in-chief of the Red Army (RKKA), and by Ephraim Sklyansky , deputy to Leon Trotsky , the civilian leader of the Red Army. (Since 2006, the Russian Federation has officially observed the date of 5 November as the professional holiday of military intelligence in Russia.) The military human intelligence service thus established
8245-487: The swap. Skripal moved to Salisbury , Wiltshire, where he purchased a house in 2011. According to British security officials, Skripal continued to provide information to the UK and other Western intelligence agencies for a period after 2010. Skripal's wife died in 2012 of disseminated endometrial cancer . His daughter returned to Moscow in 2014 and worked in sales. His son died aged 43 in March 2017, in unknown circumstances, on
8342-725: The techniques used in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal . That attack has been specifically tied to Unit 29155 . Three individuals were charged in absentia by the Bulgarians in January 2020. In March 2021, six Bulgarian nationals alleged to be members of a GRU spy ring operating in Bulgaria were arrested in Sofia . The GRU received intelligence from Jeffrey Delisle of the Royal Canadian Navy , leading to
8439-496: The tenure of Igor Sergun , who headed the service from late 2011 until his death in early January 2016. Sergun's sudden death shortly after the restoration of the GRU's influence led to speculations of foul play by Russian adversaries. The tenure of Sergun's successor, Igor Korobov , was marked by what some news media construed as multiple high-profile setbacks, such as the thwarted 2016 coup d'état attempt in Montenegro ,
8536-689: The unit covered a broad range of activities from running NGOs targeting Russian expatriates in Western countries (InfoRos, Institute of the Russian Diaspora, World Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad, Foundation for Supporting and Protecting the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad) and manipulating public opinion in Russia and abroad in preparation for armed conflicts such as in Georgia, Donbas or Syria. Unit 74455, also known as
8633-473: Was alleged to have blown the cover of 300 Russian agents. From 2001, Skripal worked in the Ministry of Municipalities of the Government of Moscow Oblast . In December 2004, Skripal was arrested outside his house in Moscow's Krylatskoye District shortly after returning from Britain. In August 2006, he was convicted of spying for Britain. Prosecutors said he had been supplying MI6 with information since
8730-473: Was also recruited by GRU agents as leverage against Deniss, and would serve as a courier for classified information. In May 2017, Russian citizen Artem Zinchenko was convicted of spying on Estonia for the GRU. In 2018, Zinchenko was traded back to Russia in exchange for Raivo Susi, an Estonian imprisoned for espionage. In 2022, Zinchenko fled Russia to seek asylum in Estonia, citing personal opposition to
8827-648: Was discharged from the hospital. The Director of Nursing said that further treatment would be provided outside the hospital and that treating the Skripals had been "a huge and unprecedented challenge". The police declared a major incident as a number of agencies were involved. On 6 March, it was agreed under the National Counter Terrorism Policing Network that the Counter Terrorism Command based within
8924-770: Was originally known as the Registration Agency ( Registrupravlenie , or Registrupr ; Russian: Региструпр ) of the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic; Simon Aralov was its first head. Its early history was marked by a series of reorganisations influenced by the Soviet-Polish War , the consolidation and restablisation of the Soviet Union, and the general reorganisation of
9021-640: Was possibly linked to GRU’s Unit 29155, as reported by the Insider. Symptoms included migraines and dizziness. Investigations suggested incidents might have occurred as early as 2016, with potential prior events in Frankfurt, Germany. The U.S. Congress passed the Havana Act in 2021 to provide aid to affected personnel and families. Commonly known as the Spetsnaz GRU , it was formed in 1949. Following
9118-596: Was presumably used by GRU for the clandestine operations carried out throughout Europe. Investigators had identified 15 agents – all of them members of GRU's Unit 29155 – who visited Haute-Savoie in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes , region of France from 2014 to 2018, including Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov , who are believed to be behind the poisoning of the former GRU colonel and British double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018. During
9215-412: Was run in parallel in multiple locations, involving Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, local police, Tax Administration, Border Guard, and Finnish Defence Forces. During the operation, a no-fly zone was declared over Turku Archipelago where key objects were located. While official cause given for the raid was multi-million euro money laundering and tax fraud, media speculated that the company had been
9312-626: Was scheduled to meet with the Swiss Intelligence Service of the Federation . On 4 March 2018, Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Moscow, were found "slipping in and out of consciousness on a public bench" near a shopping centre in Salisbury by a doctor and nurse who were passing by. While at Salisbury District Hospital , they were put into induced comas to prevent organ damage. Following
9409-569: Was still working and in regular contact with military intelligence officers at the Russian Embassy. While it was initially reported that Skripal was a close confidant of Christopher Steele , the British ex-spy who compiled the controversial Steele dossier , the Telegraph later reported an accusation from anonymous sources that this trail of evidence linking Skripal to Steele was fabricated by Russian Intelligence. On 28 September 2018,
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