GRU chief behind Skripal attack dies
• The head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, the agency behind the botched poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal on British soil in March, died on Wednesday after battling “a long and serious illness,” the Russian defence ministry said.
Igor Korobov’s sudden death by a previously unreported illness has raised international suspicions, given the recent exposure of multiple GRU operations by online investigators in the months since Skripal was poisoned in Salisbury.
In October, rumours were said to be circulating in the defence ministry that the 62-year-old fell ill after a dressing down from Vladimir Putin during a September visit to the Kremlin.
A statement published by the Kremlin yesterday was curt: “Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the friends and family of (Korobov) in connection with his death. (He) died on Nov. 21 after a serious and long-standing illness.”
The defence ministry statement was much more generous, showering Korobov in praise as “a wonderful person, a faithful son of Russia and a patriot of his homeland.” Russians appeared to take the explanation of his death at face value, with little — if any — suspicion.
Russian news agencies suggested that Korobov’s deputy, Vice-Admiral Igor Kostyukov, is the favourite to succeed him. Vice-Adm. Kostyukov had reportedly been filling in for Korobov during his illness. It is not clear when Korobov fell ill.
Kostyukov has made several appearances at the annual Moscow Conference on International Security, but otherwise keeps a low profile. He has been sanctioned by the United States twice for his role in alleged GRU hacking and election interference — once in 2016 and again in 2018.
It has been a bad year for the GRU, which has seen clandestine operations outed by online investigators at outfits such as Bellingcat.
Yesterday, in a further embarrassment to the military intelligence unit, Bellingcat and The Insider, a Russian website, claimed that they had identified a second GRU officer involved in a 2016 coup attempt in Montenegro. They named the suspect, who only had been known under his cover identity of Vladimir Popov, as Vladimir Moiseev.
The repeated exposure of GRU operations and operatives has been met with widespread ridicule in Russia, where many have been left puzzled at the apparent ineptitude of one of the country’s most revered intelligence services.
Korobov was a career military man, beginning his rise through the ranks as an air force pilot in 1973. He joined the GRU in 1985, where he served in various senior military intelligence posts over the next 30 years.
When his predecessor, Igor Sergun, suddenly died in 2016 of a reported heart attack, Korobov was appointed by Putin to run the GRU.