Appears that - despite popular belief - some people in Serbian intel/law enforcement is not too happy with GRU's activities in Serbia. This video of a GRU officer allegedly bribing an unnamed Serbian official was leaked to news media todayhttps://youtu.be/yawNh1SwYts
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His residential address in Moscow is the address of the General Military Academy - not surprising given he is a military (deputy) attache. No proof there he's GRU either. However, checking *his wife's* registered address shows something slightly more interesting.
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She's registered at the dormitory of а spetznaz airborne assault military unit. We've found that often, GRU officers that are trained for future deployment under diplomatic cover, are "spared" registration at GRU addresses. Not so careful with their spouses though.
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Radio Free Europe followed up on this story and was told by the Serbian Foreign Ministry that Georgiy Kleban indeed served as deputy military attache in Belgrade until June 2018. The Russian embassy has not yet responded to their queries https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.slobodnaevropa.org%2Fa%2Fruski-obavestajac-sastanak-srpski-agent%2F30278590.html …
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A review of archived versions of the Russian embassy website shows that lt. col Kleban joined as assistant military attache around the beginning of 2016. That would make his departure after 2.5 years somewhat premature, compared to other asst. attaches. Possibly silently PNG-ed?
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Seems indeed that he was PNG-ed. I found his son's social media profile. In August of this year, his Serbian friends wrote to him: "When are you coming back to Belgrade?" He responded, in Serbian: "I am afraid never"
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If this is true, Russia had two GRU officers caught bribing officials and PNGed from what it considered traditionally "friendly" countries in the last 6 months - Serbia and Bulgaria. Not a good year for GRU.
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Thanks to many retweets from people in Serbia, regional media are picking up on this story today. But let's summarize what we know vs what we don't know as of now:
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We know that Kleban is a GRU officer. We know he was videotaped exchanging bags with someone in Belgrade. We know he made an unplanned departure from his post as assistant attache between June and August this year. That implies a PNG.
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We don't know who the other person on the video is. We also don't know if the bag indeed contained cash, as there is no uncut continuity in the video. We also don't know, of course, who the anonymous source of the video was.
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One other little known fact for context: when neighboring Bulgaria PNG-d a GRU officer recruiting a local intel official, Bulgaria tried to keep the process quiet and didn't announce names. However, another CEE Intel service leaked the spy's name to media.
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My most likely hypothesis is that something similar happened in Serbia. However, it's more likely that local intel leaked. They've been known to be frazzled with GRU since the latter used Serbia to stage that botched whatever-it-was in Montenegro.
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Serbian president says he has ordered an investigation into the video and the alleged recruitment incident, says there will be serious consequences if confirmed to be true.https://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2019&mm=11&dd=20&nav_category=11&nav_id=1619718&version=amp&yyyy=2019&mm=11&dd=20&nav_category=11&nav_id=1619718&__twitter_impression=true …
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Meanwhile state-owned newspaper Politika publishes scoop (no sources cited) that the video is more than a year old, and the asset Kleban exchanges bags with is "not a security official" bu likely a "private citizen who was selling commerical data". Waiting for official info today
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Situation seems to be escalating. Serbian defense minister Vulin left abruptly parliament session to meet with Vucic, says "situation is very serious, in the background are attempts to distance Serbia from its policy of military neutrality." Cryptic.
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Serbian security agency BIA has just confirmed the authenticity of the spy video to Serbian media.
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Update: BIA also confirmed it's definitely Kleban on the video. Full details are promised after a meeting of the national security council tomorrow, Thursday.
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All major Serbian newspapers tomorrow headline with the spy story. Some of them are highly critical of the very fact that this story has received coverage, claiming it's a plot to alieanate Serbia from Russia.pic.twitter.com/Q1YfqQWiTf
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There seems to be a serious intra agency cold war in Serbia, with BIA essentially confirming the Russian espionage operation, while other siloviks are intent to make this look like a Western "hybrid attack on Serbia". Both seem intent on pressuring Vucic. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php%3Fyyyy%3D2019%26mm%3D11%26dd%3D20%26nav_category%3D11%26nav_id%3D1620176&xid=17259,15700019,15700186,15700190,15700256,15700259,15700262,15700265,15700271,15700283&usg=ALkJrhiMW3xg_oqt21QjQqFbC0icZSD0tQ …
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Kremlin says "nothing can affect our brotherly relationship with Serbia despite Vucic opening investigation into the spy affair"https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1XV129 …
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