GRU
Federal agencyWikipedia
73
MENTIONS
21
EPISODES
16
PODCASTS
Search complete. 73 mentions across 21 episodes found for "GRU".
Oct 18, 2026
Andrej MatišákHOST
How much is Russia concerned or not very concerned about the attribution? I mean, and also, how much Russia is betting on the fact that there will be no unity among the Western countries? Just one example.
Andrej MatišákHOST
There were reports in German press that there were some GRU people in Slovakia, in my country, basically plotting and doing stuff.
Andrej MatišákHOST
On the other hand, other intelligence services, I mean, Slovak intelligence services are claiming there were no GRU people and so on.
Andrej MatišákHOST
How much is Russia betting on this? There will be no unity when we are talking about the attribution.
Andrei SoldatovGUEST
Well, they are betting on that, but also what they have been trying to do recently, and that is a fairly recent development.
Nick SchifrinCORRESPONDENT
Mm-hmm
Michael ReyGUEST
... .ru, which is a group of exiled Russian journalists, uh, we were able to access phone records, uh, internal emails, uh, from Russian officials, GRU officials, government officials, that indicate travel patterns that match Havana Syndrome incidents.
Michael ReyGUEST
So Christo came to us with that information.
Michael ReyGUEST
We had our database of incidents from our reporting, and we found a few moments where there was travel of suspicious, uh, intelligence officers, uh, who might be capable of this kind of work, um, that coincided with incidents at wherever they were.
Nick SchifrinHOST
What else did you find that built the case towards suggesting Russian involvement?
Michael ReyGUEST
So with Christos' help and the folks at theinsider.ru, which is a group of exile Russian journalists, we were able to access phone records, internal emails from Russian officials, GRU officials, government officials, that indicate travel patterns that match Havana Syndrome incidents.
Michael ReyGUEST
So Crystal came to us with that information.
Michael ReyGUEST
We had our database of incidents from our reporting, and we found a few moments where there was travel of suspicious intelligence officers who might be capable of this kind of work that coincided with incidents that were aware of.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
It helps with counterintelligence, political networks, and it makes sure that it has a finger across the entire former Soviet space.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
But we also see that the GRU, the military intelligence, it handles sabotage, special operations, and covert military activity abroad.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
But these two networks, they don't get along.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
In fact, they fight with each other all of the time.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
Total casualty counts are still undisclosed.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
These were top-tier GRU operators trained to move completely undetected.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
But Ukraine, its forces mapped their exact route and laid a lethal trap.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
Chuck, what happens when a recon team walks straight into a custom ambush?
Chuck PfarrerGUEST
Somebody in Moscow is gonna answer for this.
Chuck PfarrerGUEST
Who's gonna take the fall?
Jason Jay SmartHOST
Well, the brigade answers directly to GRU command under Russia's general staff.
Jason Jay SmartHOST
Moscow must determine if the plans leaked because of human betrayal or was communications, surveillance.
Ben MacintyreGUEST
And Kuzichkin began to explain the kind of jewels that he was able to provide McCredie with.
Ben MacintyreGUEST
And one of the first things he provided was a complete list of the entire KGB order of battle in Iran, every single active KGB and GRU officer.
Ben MacintyreGUEST
Now, that's the kind of information that was so valuable that it was clear from the get-go that Kuzichkin was not a dangle.
Ben MacintyreGUEST
He was the real thing.
Ben MacintyreGUEST
So it has this reputation that preceded it.
Ben MacintyreGUEST
But the truth is, Michael, I think MI6 was rather surprised and indeed, um, somewhat Taken aback to have not one, but two KGB officers running simultaneously inside that hitherto really impenetrable organization.
Ben MacintyreGUEST
No one had ever had one, uh, since Penkovsky, who was a GRU officer, inside the building, you know, looking outwards.
Ben MacintyreGUEST
So to have two, they, which was another reason why they were a little distrustful of their own spycraft, was a, a, an extraordinary windfall for the time.
Mike BakerHOST
And that brings us to another part of the FT report.
Mike BakerHOST
Who is Russia actually using to carry out these operations? Well, intelligence sources say much of the responsibility falls to the GRU.
Mike BakerHOST
That's Russia's military intelligence service.
Mike BakerHOST
The GRU reportedly works closely with organized criminal networks, spreading the work among people in different countries.
Mike BakerHOST
So far, European authorities have already uncovered and disrupted some suspected operations while detecting suspicious surveillance around defense industry employees' homes and workplaces.
Mike BakerHOST
One European intelligence official told the Financial Times that some of the people Russia uses are amateurish and relatively easy to detect.
speaker_1HOST
Yes.
speaker_0HOST
For our listeners who might just picture a lone hacker in a basement, it is crucial to understand that APT28 is widely assessed by global intelligence agencies to be a unit of the GRU, which is Russia's military intelligence service.
speaker_1HOST
Yes.
speaker_1HOST
And alongside them, the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence agency, is also active.
speaker_0HOST
That distinction is vital.
speaker_0HOST
These are highly resourced state directed military operations occurring in the digital domain.
speaker_1HOST
Furthermore, there has been confirmed physical sabotage against a Danish water utility and reports of GRU and SVR efforts to exploit cyber weaknesses in Danish defense contractors.
speaker_0HOST
And I see in the data that these specific contractors are deeply tied to F-16 supply chains, Baltic logistics, and Greenland and Arctic networks.
Jack MurphyHOST
... and everything else.
Jack MurphyHOST
Um, and I think it, you say in the book how obviously these KGB officers, and then later probably, uh, GRU guys-
Naveed JamaliGUEST
GRU, yep
Jack MurphyHOST
... are being cycled in and out of the UN mission-
Naveed JamaliGUEST
Yeah
Naveed JamaliGUEST
Yeah, the main enemy.
Naveed JamaliGUEST
That's exactly right.
Naveed JamaliGUEST
And so, um- If you were gonna climb up the ladder for the GRU or the SVR, any of that, you're coming to the United States.
JohnHOST
It would be the Africa Corps because Wagner is mostly gone and then they got rolled into the Africa Corps, which is obviously operating in some of these countries in Africa as the name would suggest.
JohnHOST
For those who don't know, Russia's paramilitary presence in Africa is known as the Africa Corps, a paramilitary organization that answers to Russia's GRU.
JohnHOST
As Wagner Group was almost entirely dissolved, however its personnel and networks were transferred to Africa Corps.
JohnHOST
Africa Corps, kind of Wagner Group, kind of, is not known to have a presidence, presence in the DRC.
11 more episodes mention GRU.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.