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BREAKING: We have determined the real identity of "Elbrus", a high-ranking FSB officer who was tied to the downing of MH17 and planning the extraterritorial assassination of Russia's enemies abroad. His name: Colonel Igor Anatolyevich Egorov. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/04/24/identifying-fsbs-elusive-elbrus-from-mh17-to-assassinations-in-europe/
Egorov has long been on our radar, after being named by @colonelcassad in a November 2014 blog post as being a Moscow-installed military commander meant to consolidate groups within the so-called Luhansk People's Republic. He failed, alongside "Delfin", General Nikolai Tkachev.
Egorov, as "Elbrus", acted as one of the leading FSB curators in eastern Ukraine, working out of Luhansk. Another notable action he undertook while in Luhansk was being involved in the kidnapping of Nadia Savchenko, per a @meduzaproject investigation ( https://meduza.io/feature/2016/03/21/ya-ee-vzyal-i-lichno-peredal-plotnitskomu).
Last week, the SBU announced that their own Lt. General Valeriy Shaytanov was arrested for being a Russian double-agent, recruited by an FSB operative -- Col. Igor Egorov. Before going to Luhansk, Egorov was involved in the FSB's work in Crimea, later receiving a medal for it.
We had identified Egorov as the most likely candidate for "Elbrus" some months ago, but this new SBU announcement spurred us into reviewing this finding. Analyzing his travel records shows a litany of international trips for the FSBnik -- including a February 2020 trip to Hamburg
It was during this February Hamburg trip that he was recorded by the SBU (they have published the video, seen below) planning the assassination of a Chechen in Kyiv. The would-be hitman was to receive $200,000 and a Russian passport (and even a pension)
(This footage can be geolocated very easily to Hamburg’s Gänsemarkt Passage shopping mall)
Col. Egorov traveled with ease throughout Europe on a visa issued by France, similar to other GRU and FSB officers and contracted killers we have previously investigated, including Vadim Krasikov, the Berlin Khangoshvili assassin.
Col. Egorov, a senior officer from the FSB's elite Department V ("Vympel" successor), was able to jump and skip across Europe. However, our investigative partners Der Spiegel has found that in March 2020, the French issued a "track but do not arrest" alert on Egorov.
Egorov planned another trip to Germany in March, however, due to restrictions caused by coronavirus, this booking was cancelled. It's quite possible, considering the ongoing SBU at the time operation and the French alert, that this saved Egorov from being detained in Germany.
Read the full report, with additional information on Egorov's background and travel behavior, here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/04/24/identifying-fsbs-elusive-elbrus-from-mh17-to-assassinations-in-europe/
На русском языке, from @the_ins_ru, our investigative partners on this and all our other work on Russian intelligence & security services, here: https://theins.ru/politika/215689
