Russia’s GRU: Spy agency known for brazenness back in the headlines

“First of all, these assertions are a lie,” Peskov stated in a convention name with reporters. “Secondly, if the US special services still report to the president, then I suggest [you] proceed from the corresponding statements of President Trump, who has already given his assessment to these reports.”

One will be forgiven for having a way of déjà vu: The denials about GRU at all times come swiftly from the Russian authorities.

The Kremlin repeatedly denied involvement in each instances, though Russian President Vladimir Putin known as Skripal a “traitor” and a “scumbag” and instructed that the leak of the Democratic Party emails was not essentially a nasty factor.

Now, allegations that the GRU supplied bounties to Taliban fighters to kill US troops come at a delicate time: Russia — which considers Afghanistan a near-neighbor — need American troops out of the nation.

In late February, the US and the Taliban inked a peace deal that paves the means for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and peace talks between the militant group and the authorities.

While relations between the US and Russia are fraught, the two international locations have some frequent floor on Afghanistan: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova, often a staunch critic of US overseas coverage, not too long ago praised US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad for his “proactive efforts” to dealer peace in Afghanistan.

An alleged GRU operation focusing on US and coalition troopers would look like at odds with these Russian diplomatic initiatives, says Laurel Miller, program director for Asia with International Crisis Group.

Russia has cultivated contacts with each the Taliban and different combatants in Afghanistan as a strategy to affect outcomes in a area it considers its strategic yard. “It’s long been known that there were Russian contacts with the Taliban and at minimum some greasing of the relationship with benefits as a hedging technique,” Miller stated. Back in 2017, for occasion, Army Gen. John Nicholson, the high US commander stated publicly Russia was sending weapons to the Taliban through neighboring Tajikistan.

However, she stated that an operation to place bounties on US troops can be much more provocative and a “different thing” from its typical conduct. “It conflicts with what Russian official policy is,” she stated. In different phrases, the alleged GRU operation focusing on US and coalition troops may have blowback: probably undermining US help for withdrawal, or maybe prompting recent sanctions on Russia.

But the agency does have a fame for brazenness — and may function seemingly opportunistically or independently of official coverage.

“That was a pattern we’ve seen many times in Ukraine,” he stated, referring to Russian intelligence actions there. “The Kremlin is hardly a well-oiled machine, but time and again, Putin — either by denying blatant Russian misdeeds or throwing a safety blanket over his security establishment — does little to improve Russia’s international image.”

And Putin has proven constant willingness to present political cowl to the GRU.

Just a number of months after the Salisbury poisonings, which prompted the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats from the West, Putin took half in a gala occasion to have a good time the centenary of what he known as the “legendary GRU” and praised the patriotism of its officers, who work for a company that now not has “intelligence” in its title.