Russian spy team left traces that bolstered CIA’s bounty judgment
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Last Updated: May 07, 2021, 02:40 PM IST
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Synopsis
The claim, that Russia was trying to pay to generate more frequent attacks on Western forces, was stunning, particularly because the United States was trying at the same time to negotiate a deal with the Taliban to end the long-running war in Afghanistan. CIA analysts set out to see whether they could corroborate or debunk the detainees’ accounts.
AFP
In this file photo taken on July 13, 2009, US Marines of 1st Combat Engineering Battalion of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade stand guard as the search goes on for missing marines after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Garmsir district of Helmand Province
Russian Spy Unit Investigated for Links to Bulgarian Explosions
The probe will look at whether Unit 29155, an elite group of Russian intelligence operatives, is connected to a series of blasts at ammunition depots over the past 10 years.
Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, center, during a press conference with the prime minister of Bulgaria, Boiko Borisov, left, on October 10, 2017, in Sofia, Bulgaria.Credit.Nikolay Doychinov/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
April 28, 2021
SOFIA, Bulgaria The prosecutor general’s office in Bulgaria announced Wednesday that it was investigating a possible connection between a series of explosions at ammunition depots around the country and an elite group of Russian military intelligence operatives known as Unit 29155.
The Arms Merchant in the Sights of Russiaâs Elite Assassination Squad
Russian spies have twice tried to poison Emilian Gebrev. Now, revelations in the Czech Republic show they also destroyed shipments of his military supplies.
Inspecting the damage after an explosion at an ammunition depot near Vrbetice in October 2014. Credit. Police of the Czech Republic, via Shutterstock
April 24, 2021, 8:34 a.m. ET
For a major arms merchant, Emilian Gebrev cuts the modest figure of a bemused grandfather, preferring soccer jerseys and polo shirts to suits and ties, driving his own car and insisting that he is of little importance outside his native Bulgaria.
Russiaâs Ties With West Fray Further After Czech Republic Expels Its Diplomats
About 60 Russian diplomats were ordered out of the Czech Republic, which said it had evidence of Moscowâs involvement in an ammunition dump explosion in 2014.
A wall near the Russian embassy in Prague on Thursday.Credit.Michal Cizek/Agence France-Presse â Getty Images
By Hana de Goeij and Andrew Higgins
April 22, 2021Updated 2:14 p.m. ET
PRAGUE â Russiaâs unraveling relations with the West took a dramatic turn for the worse on Thursday when the Czech Republic, furious over what it said were Moscowâs fingerprints on a military-style sabotage attack on a Czech weapons warehouse in 2014, ordered the expulsion of as many as 60 Russian diplomats.
On Saturday, Prague kicked out 18 Russian diplomats after accusing Russia of being behind an attack on an ammunition depot. On Sunday, Moscow retaliated.