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Russia's intelligence and security services are active in Sweden and in the other Nordic countries.
About a third of the staff at the Russian embassies are in fact intelligence officers, according to the Nordic intelligence and counterintelligence services in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
By acting under diplomatic cover they are protected by the Vienna convention which grants them diplomatic immunity and exempts them from the laws of a foreign jurisdiction.
Swedish investigative television show Uppdrag Granskning has investigated 21 suspected intelligence officers who are active in Sweden or previously have been – which is revealed in episode two of the investigative documentary series ”Putin's Shadow War” which airs on April 26.
Together with the investigative organization Dossier Center, which has access to leaked databases from inside Russia, we can now reveal unique details about their backgrounds and they are doing in Sweden.
SÄPO recently received a list of suspected Russian intelligence officers that Uppdrag Granskning identified – and on April 25, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Sweden is expelling five Russian diplomats.
These are Putin's spies.
Andrei Gurov moves in and out of the area around the embassy in Stockholm. We are able to film him on several occasions, he uses more than one of the entrances at the Russian embassy. Photo: Kalle Segerbäck
Andrei Ebertovich Gurov was born on December 12, 1972 in the city of Tomsk in what was then the Soviet Union.
He started working as an embassy counselor at the Russian embassy in Stockholm in 2020 and has diplomatic immunity. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he actually works for the Russian Federal Security Service FSB.
The yellow building is The Federal Security Service's, FSB, headquarter, by Lubyanka square in central Moscow. During World War II it was a notorious prison under the leadership of NKVD, which was the Soviet Union's secret, state police organization. Photo: Yuriy Mikhailovich
In 2008 Gurov worked at FSB in Tomsk, whose office according to The Dossier Center is found on the adress Prospekt Kirov, 18a.
He has a background as a high-ranking manager in the Federal Security Service FSB in Rostov in southern Russia, according to The Dossier Center. He can be found in data dated to 2015 and 2019 as chief of the department of the Russian Federal Security Service in the Rostov-region.
FSB – the Russian Federal Security Service that fights terrorism and is responsible for protecting the national security of Russia, as well as coordinating the counterintelligence efforts of the federal executive branch.
Dmitry Abdulin is working out at the embassy area. We only catch him on film once during the weeks of fall 2022 when we gathered our material. Photo: Kalle Segerbäck
Dmitry Sergeyevich Abdulin was born on June 10 in 1981 in Volgograd.
After Uppdrag granskning's disclosure, he has been deported from Sweden.
He has been a registered attaché at the Russian embassy in Stockholm since 2019 – but is in fact an SVR officer, according to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services. According to one of the sources he was responsible for encryption matters at the Russian embassy in Stockholm.
He has an official background at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2021. He is registered at Frunzenskaya Nabereznaya 22/2 in Moscow. That is a special address with connections to the the Eighth Directorate at the Russian Ministry of Defence – a military management body for the armed forces in the Russian Federation, according to The Dossier Center. The Eighth Directorate works with protecting Russian state secrets and data protection to protect the operations of the armed forces.
Abdulin belongs to the military unit 70855 in Moscow and has previously worked for the federal and state institution for secure storage and destruction of chemical weapons, that since its liquidation in 2012 is the responsibility of the Defense Ministry. Russia claims to have destroyed all chemical weapons in 2017, a claim that is questioned by, among others, the United States.
SVR – Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, answers to the president of Russia and focuses on operations abroad. Their mission consists of supplying Russia with the intelligence information they need to make decisions regarding politics, economy, military strategy, science, technology and environment – in short to spy abroad for domestic purposes.
During the weeks that Uppdrag granskning collects material by the embassy, Banatov is recorded several times. Photo: Kalle Segerbäck
After Uppdrag granskning's disclosure, Banatov has been deported from Sweden.
Nikolai Igorevich Banatov was born on September 17, 1982 and is not a registered diplomat, but was part of the staff of the Russian embassy in Stockholm. He was registered at the embassy and enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Banatov in fact works for the military intelligence service GRU, according to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services.
Banatov is originally from the city of Saratov where he was trained at the Higher military command engineering red banner order of the red star school missile forces, according to The Dossier Center. The school was named after the Soviet Union hero Major General A. I. Lizyukov. Banatov belonged to the “Батарея Курина”-faculty.
He was previously an attaché at the Russian embassy's trade delegation in Serbia 2015, according to The Dossier Center's databases.
GRU – the military intelligence service that focus on intelligence about Swedish politics, Swedish defense, Sweden's defense ability, and technology acquisition from Swedish companies. GRU stands for Main Intelligence Directorate.
These are the 21 suspected intelligence officers
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Maria GeorgievaReporter Uppdrag granskning
Ali FeganReporter Uppdrag granskning
Dossier centerResearch
Axel Gordh HumlesjöResearch
Kalle SegerbäckPhotographer
Fredrik LarssonVideo processing
SVT datajournalistikWebbproduction
This is The Dossier Center
Dossier Center is an investigative network of journalists and researchers that was founded by the previous businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, with the purpose of tracking corruption connected to the Kremlin
They have access to leaked databases from inside of Russia, which they use to investigate individuals and institutions in connection to the sphere around Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The databases consist of official address and passport registers, phone numbers and among other things contain raw data from the Ministry of the Interior. It shows a complex web of individuals, everything from politicians in high positions to regional police chiefs.
Most importantly they have obtained a register with individuals that may have a connection to the Russian intelligence and counterintelligence services GRU, SVR and FSB.
How we did the investigation
We obtained a list of names of Russian diplomats who are currently working or have previously worked at the Russian embassy in Stockholm from a secret intelligence source in the west.
For our research, we compiled and analysed information about current and former acredited diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sweden through the official list of diplomats.
We started with the information about the accredited diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official list of diplomats to continue our own research. We spell their names the way they are spelled on the diplomatic list. We collected first names, patronyms and surnames as well as birth dates and sent the material to Dossier Center who have done extensive searches in their databases to look at their backgrounds. The research material and data from Dossier Center's databases show that several of the diplomats on our list in fact may be something else then accredited diplomats. We for instance found that they are registered on addresses in connection to the Russian intelligence services official operations. Several of the people on the list are connected to the military intelligence service GRU's headquarter in Moscow, to the Russian Defense Ministry or to the The Federal Security Service FSB. Their educations also reveal information that shows that they have backgrounds as intelligence officers.
The imagery of the Russian embassy was taken by Kalle Segerbäck from the top of the DN-buildning. Photo: SVT
We also started our own work outside of the Russian buildings, such as the embassy, in Stockholm. We did fieldwork to document who the intelligence officers are. We collected as much visual material as possible. The idea was to be able to connect the names to faces of the people who are active in Sweden today. In that way we could visualize our list of the suspected intelligence officers and have been able to get confirmation of the material with the help of our secret sources.
Editor-in-chief: Axel Björklund | © Sveriges Television AB
The military intelligence service GRU's headquarter is located at Khoroshyovskoye shosse 76B in Moscow. Photo: Yuriy Mikhailovich
Alexander Alekseenkov
GRU
Alexander Viktorovich Alekseenkov was born on June 5, 1976 and works for the Russian military intelligence service GRU.
He has been registered on the diplomatic lists at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2015 and 2019 as an accredited diplomat, officially as an embassy counselor.
Two different sources in western intelligence and counterintelligence services confirms that Alekseenkov works for the GRU. According to The Dossier Center's databases from Moscow he is an GRU colonel who is registered on the address of GRU's headquarters in Moscow, Khoroshyovskoye shosse 76B.
Dossier Center's database shows that Alekseenkov is registered at the GRU headquarter in Moscow.
Alekseenkov is registered at the same GRU headquarter as the agent and doctor Alexander Misjkin has been. Misjkin has had several addresses and is one of the men who is suspected to have been involved in the poisoning of the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018. Via the Russian news agency Interfax and by using open sources we have been able to see Alexander Alekseenkov speak in the role of press attache for the Russian embassy in Moldova in 2009.
SVR
Alexander Andreievich Khramov was born on August 2, 1984 and works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service SVR.
Khramov has been in Sweden since 2019 and works as first secretary at the Russian embassy in Stockholm.
According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he actually works for the SVR who carries out espionage abroad.
He has lived in the outskirts of Moscow in Troitsk and in the village Vatutinki-1. In the latter GRU's main reception center, military unit 25801, can be found. That, however, doesn't have to be related to him belonging to the SVR, according to The Dossier Center.
Andrei Gurov moves in and out of the embassy area in Stockholm. We get him on film on several occasions, he uses several of the entrances at the Russian embassy. Photo: Kalle Segerbäck
Andrei Gurov
FSB
Andrei Ebertovich Gurov was born on December 12, 1972 in the city of Tomsk in what was then the Soviet Union.
He started working as an embassy counselor at the Russian embassy in Stockholm in 2020 and has diplomatic immunity. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he actually works for the Russian Federal Security Service FSB.
In 2008 Gurov worked at FSB in Tomsk, whose office according to The Dossier Center is found on the address Prospekt Kirov, 18a.
Data from 2015 shows that Gurov used to be the head of a department in FSB.
He has a background as a high-ranking manager within The Federal Security Service FSB in Rostov in southern Russia, according to the Dossier Center. He can be found in data from 2015 and 2019 as head of the department of Russian Federal Security Service in the Rostov region.
By doing searches on phone numbers we got from Dossier Center we could connect Prokopiev to the chat program Whatsapp. This is his profile picture there. Photo: Private
Andrei Prokopiev
GRU
Andrei Vladimirovich Prokopiev was born on May 23, 1980 in Kazan which is located in the partial republic of Tatarstan in Russia. He works for the Russian military intelligence service GRU.
After Uppdrag granskning's disclosure, he has been deported from Sweden.
When Prokopiev came to Sweden, he was registered at what was then his place of work – a radio receiving center that belongs to the GRU, military unit 32047, which is located in Mytishchi in northern Moskow.
According to the databases of The Dossier Center he was an assistent prefect at the GRU unit.
Prokopiev is not a registered diplomat but was part of the staff of the Russian embassy in Stockholm. He was registered at the address of the embassy and enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he actually works for the GRU.
Dmitry Abdulin is working out at the embassy area. We only see him this one time during the weeks we gathered our material, during the fall of 2022. Photo: Kalle Segerbäck
SVR
Dmitry Sergeyevich Abdulin was born on June 10 in 1981 in Volograd.
After Uppdrag granskning's disclosure, he has been deported from Sweden.
He has been a registered attaché at the Russian embassy in Stockholm since 2019 – but is in fact an SVR officer, according to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services. According to one of the sources he is responsible for encryption matters at the Russian embassy in Stockholm.
He has an official background at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2021. He is registered at Frunzenskaya Nabereznaya 22/2 in Moscow. That is a special address with connections to the Eighth Directorate at the Russian Ministry of Defence – a military management body for the armed forces in the Russian Federation, according to The Dossier Center. The Eighth Directorate works with protecting Russian state secrets and data protection to protect the operations of the armed forces.
Dossier Center's database shows Abdulin's connection to the Russian national defence.
Abdulin belongs to military unit 70855 Moscow and has previously worked for the federal, state institution for secure storage and destruction of chemical weapons, which since the liquidation in 2012 is the responsibility of the Defense Ministry. Russia claims to have destroyed all chemical weapons in 2017 a claim that is questioned by, among others, the United States.
Picture taken from Zenikovs wife's profile page on vk.ry – Russia's equivalent to Facebook. Photo: Private
Evgeny Zenikov
SVR
Evgeny Alexandrovich Zenikov was born on December 19, 1977 and works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR.
He is a diplomat at the Russian Federation Foreign Ministry since 2009. He was stationed in Sweden between 2018 and 2021.
Zenikov's diplomatic passport
Officially, he was second secretary at the Russian embassy in Stockholm, but according to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he works for the SVR.
He previously worked with protection of businessmen in a private security company.
Iosevitch's profile picture on vk.ru, Russia's equivalent to Facebook. Photo: Private
Kirill Ioskevich
SVR
Kirill Vladimirovich Ioskevich was born on January 8, 1990 and works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service SVR. Ioskevich is an accredited diplomat in Sweden since 2019.
He is officially third secretary at the Russian embassy in Stockholm. But according to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he works for the SVR.
He is educated at the Russian Foreign Trade Academy, Vavt, in Moscow, according to The Dossier Center. The academy is a part of the Ministry of Economic Development. We also find SVR officers Sergei Mikhalev, Vladmir Komarov, Mikhail Kiselev and Evgeny Umerenko at the Ministry of Economic Development, which is often used to give agents a credible background story.
He has worked at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2019. He was previously registered in the village of Vatutinki-1, home to a radio center that is controlled by the intelligence service GRU. That, however, doesn't have to be related to him belonging to the SVR, according to The Dossier Center.
Chentsov together with Sergei Mikhalev, the head of counterintelligence, outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm. Photo: Kalle Segerbäck
SVR
Konstantin Alexandrovich Chentsov was born on February 9, 1974 and he works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service SVR.
After Uppdrag granskning's disclosure, he has been deported from Sweden.
Chentsov was registered in Sweden on November 26, 2022. He was officially first secretary at the Russian embassy in Stockholm. But according to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he works for the SVR.
He can be seen with the head of counterintelligence Sergei Mikhalev in our film material, who also works for the SVR. Chentsov is active on Russian social media.
Chentsov is active on Russian social media. Photo: Private
SVR
Lev Alexandrovich Yefimov was born on September 20, 1983 in Riga in what was then the Soviet Union. He works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service – SVR.
Yefimov has been on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomatic list since 2019 and is second secretary at the Russian embassy in Stockholm.
According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence he works for the SVR, who does espionage abroad.
According to The Dossier Center Yefimov has studied at National Center for Helicopter Engineering which is named after M. L. Mil och N. I. Kamov.
Mikhail Dubrovskiy. Photo: Dossier center
Mikhail Dubrovskiy
SVR
Mikhail Vladimirovich Dubrovskiy was born on January 17, 1977 in the Ukrainian city of Charkiv and he works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service SVR.
Dubrovskiy was an embassy counselor and third in rang under the ambassador Viktor Tatarintsev. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence he works for the SVR.
Extracts from Dossier Center's database shows connections between Dubrovskiy and the SVR.
He came to Sweden with his wife and family in the summer of 2021. He was then declared persona non grata by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and left Sweden in April of 2022 in conjunction with the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Dubrovskiy graduated from Moscow State University.
According to The Dossier Center he used to work at Roszarubezhtsentr, now called Rossotrudnitjestvo – which in translation means something like “The federal authority of issues concerning the commonwealth of independent states, countrymen abroad and international humanitarian cooperation”.
The Rossotrudnitjestvo in fact answers to President Vladimir Putin himself. It comes from the precursor of FSB – KGB. Officially it is said to engage in Russian interests abroad and reach out to what Moscow calls “countrymen abroad”.
Among other things, Rossotrudnitjestvo works with culture at Russian embassies around the world. Earlier Rossotrudnitjestvo has been used to organize the Russian diaspora in a way that has brought concern to governments of the world. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine started the authority has been sanctioned by the EU.
Dubrovskiy has a passport issued by the Russian Department of Interior, military unit 33949, according to The Dossier Center. That particular military unit was prosecuted in a large-scale espionage scandal in 2010, according to The Novaja Gazeta. The military unit is also connected to several defectors and traitors. A while back the same military unit was pointed out for contracting the infamous cyberthreat company Vulkan.
Dubrovskiy's diplomatic passport.
In his Russian diplomatic passport, he is described as a counsellor. According to information published by Swedish newspaper Expressen he keeps a low profile and can't be seen on social media, but his wife has an account for Russian classmates where she has posted several tourist pictures from Stockholm. According to documents they lived in Phnom Penh in Cambodia for a while during the '00s.
Kiselev is not a registered diplomat but we see him parking a car with diplomatic license plates in a garage. In the next sequence he walks in to the Russian embassy. Photo: Kalle Segerbäck
Mikhail Kiselev
SVR
Mikhail Yurievich Kiselev was born on July 10, 1968 and works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service SVR.
Kiselev is not a registered diplomat but is part of the staff of the Russian embassy in Stockholm, where he also has an address registered and he enjoys diplomatic immunity. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he works for the SVR.
Kiselev is active on Russian social media but is rarely seen in pictures. Through his friends we have found one picture that shows Kiselevs face at what appears to be his wedding. Photo: Private
Kiselev used to work with telecommunication and is educated at an institute for radiotechnology and electronics, according to The Dossier Center. He also used to work for the same Ministry of Economic Development as Sergei Mikhalev, Evgeny Umerenko and Vladimir Komarov, which according to The Dossier Center gives them a credible background story.
Kiselev's diplomatic passport
Dossier Center also mapped big transactions to Kiselev from governmental bodies. He received a government contract worth 9 million Rubel from the Russian Federation's Ministry of Education and Science in 2017, for organizing and implementing bilateral congress events abroad. According to The Dossier Center it is common for SVR agents to act within Russian international collaborations like this to reach the Russian diaspora abroad.
According to The Dossier Center's databases his father also had a passport issued by the Military red banner institute that belongs to the SVR.
Nikolai Aleshchenko is celebrating Russia's National day during his time as an defense attaché in Spain. Photo: Privat
Nikolai Aleshchenko
GRU
Nikolai Nikolaievich Aleshchenko was born on March 15, 1986 and works for the Russian military intelligence service GRU.
Aleshchenko was born in a village in the Ryazan region that is located 200 km southeast of Moscow. He serves as a military attaché at the Russian embassy in Stockholm since 2020. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence he works for the GRU.
According to the databases of Dossier Center he is registered at an address close to GRU's headquarter in Moscow: apartment 303, 80 Choroshevskoe Shosse. GRU's headquarter is at Khoroshyovskoye shosse 76B.
His registered work address, where he is reported to be a manager, is at GRU's headquarter. GRU also issued his passport.
He served at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an attaché in Spain between 2014 and 2017.
A picture from the Russian embassy's homepage which shows Aleschenko and ambassador Viktor Tatarintsev outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm.
During the weeks of collecting material at the embassy we see Nikolai Banatov on the embassy area several times. Photo: Kalle Segerbäck
Nikolai Banatov
GRU
Nikolai Igorevich Banatov was born on September 17, 1982 and he works for the Russian military intelligence service GRU.
After Uppdrag granskning's disclosure, he has been deported from Sweden.
He is not registered as a diplomat but was part of the staff of the Russian embassy in Stockholm. He had an address registered at the embassy and enjoyed diplomatic immunity. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence he works for the GRU.
Banatov's passport shows that he is a representative of the Russian trade division.
Banatov is originally from the city of Saratov where he was educated at the Higher military command engineering red banner order of the red star school missile forces, according to the Dossier Center. The school was named after a hero of the Soviet Union – Major general A. I. Lizyukov.
Banatov used to be an attaché at the Russian embassy's trade delegation in Serbia in 2015, according to the databases of Dossier Center.
Picture taken from Odnoklassniki, a social network in Russia. Photo: Private
Pavel Mavrin
SVR
Pavel Alexievich Mavrin was born on January 27, 1972 in Moscow according to the Dossier Center. He works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service SVR.
He used to be registered as an attaché at the Russian embassy in Stockholm and according to records from 2021 he works at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He came to Sweden with his wife and family during the summer of 2021.
He was declared persona non grata and left Sweden in April 2022 in connection to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence he works for the SVR.
Mavrin is educated at the former state technical collage for meat and refrigeration industry in Moscow (1987—1991), and at what up until 2012 used to be called the Moscow state institute of electronics and mathematics, all according to The Dossier Center.
In the middle of the '00s he lived in Islamabad, Pakistan. In 2012 he was at the Russian embassy in Brazil, according to a document from an UN-meeting which the Swedish newspaper Expressen reported.
Pictures from vk.ru, Russian social media shows Mavrin on vacation with his family.
Umerenko used to work as a school librarian at the Russian embassy in Stockholm. Photo: The Russian embassy
Tatiana Umerenko
SVR
Tatiana Albertovna Umerenko was born on November 8, 1973 and works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service SVR.
Umerenko is married to SVR officer Evgeny Umerenko and is the daughter of a KGB intelligence officer.
The father, Albert Ivanovich Galyutin, belonged to the foreign intelligence service within the KGB. He illegally worked in Europe for 15 years, according to The Dossier Center. 1992, after the relations with the west became a bit warmer, Galyutin was recalled from the European residence and before he got a new apartment, he was registered at the address of the FSB pharmacy on Varsonofevsky Lane – a special pharmacy for the Russian intelligence agencies.
Galyutin later taught at the SVR academy (military unit 21247).
Data from Dossier Center that shows that Tatiana Umerenko had an address registered at the FSB pharmacy in Moscow.
Tatiana Umerenko was also registered at the same FSB pharmacy in Moscow, according to the databases of The Dossier Center. She worked as a school librarian at the Russian embassy in Stockholm. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence she actually works for the SVR.
Tatiana Umerenkos Russian passport.
Vitaly Stanevka. Photo: Dossier center
Vitaly Stanevka
GRU
Vitaly Viktorovich Stanevka was born on October 4, 1978 in the city of Lubny outside Poltava in Ukraine in what was then the Soviet Union. He works for Russia’s military intelligence service GRU.
He has been a diplomat at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2019 and had the title embassy counselor at the Russian embassy in Stockholm. According to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he works for the GRU.
Stanevka's diplomatic passport shows that he is an embassy counselor at the Russian embassy in Stockholm.
According to The Dossier Center his home address in Moscow is Khoroshyovskoye shosse 76B, apartment 1, which is GRU: s headquarter.
That's one of the addresses where the agent and doctor Alexander Misjkin has been registred. Misjkin is one of the men suspected of being involved in the poisoning of the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury 2018.
Stanevka belongs to military unit 61886 (the 107th center of special services: commando of the specific points for radio intelligence for space objects) according to The Dossier Center's data.
He traveled to Sweden with a Russian diplomatic passport, but according to documents from the Swedish population registration he is also a citizen of the Caribbean Island nation Saint Kitts and Nevis. He came to Sweden with his wife and two children in the summer of 2020, according to the Swedish newspaper Expressen.
He was declared persona non grata and left Sweden in April of 2022, in connection with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Komarovs profile picture on vk.ru, Russia's equivalent to Facebook. Photo: Private
Vladimir Komarov
SVR
Vladimir Alexievich Komarov has birthdays registered on different dates in different databases, which according to The Dossier Center can be a way to mislead. He works for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service SVR.
Komarov left Sweden in 2022 and according to two different sources within the western intelligence and counterintelligence services he works for the SVR.
Komarov's diplomatic passport.
He has an address registered on Matrosskaya Tishina nr 16, apartment 64, which is adjacent to a military unit (46188) with connection to the GRU in Moscow, according to The Dossier Center. Komarov has worked for two different ministries, for instance the Ministry for Economic Development (2019).
According to the Dossier Center, agents from the SVR and GRU can be sent to the ministry to obtain a so called “legendation”, a credible background story. The same pattern can be found for SVR officers Evgeny Umerenko, Sergei Mikhalev and Mikhail Kiselev.