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If you haven't read it already ( https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2021/04/26/how-gru-sabotage-and-assassination-operations-in-czechia-and-bulgaria-sought-to-undermine-ukraine/), I'll detail some interesting findings in this new investigation in this thread -- https://twitter.com/bellingcat/status/1386676978170875907
tl;dr on the original story to this is that six GRU officers (including the infamous Mishkin + Chepiga) all arrived in Central Europe before converging near the Czech arms depot that exploded in October 2014, allegedly linked to arms stocks of a Bulgarian arms dealer named Gebrev
Read it here. The most remarkable finding here was that Andrei Averyanov -- the Big Boss of the GRU unit linked to all the Europe chaos who reports up to the GRU head honcho and even Lavrov himself -- personally went to Europe for this mission. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2021/04/20/senior-gru-leader-directly-involved-with-czech-arms-depot-explosion/
The Czech depot explosion was done to target assets of EMCO (ran by Gebrev, the Bulgarian arms dealer). Gebrev was poisoned by the GRU in 2015 as well, so clearly he pissed someone off. The big Q no one has really answered was why Gebrev was poisoned (and had his stuff blown up)
Today's new investigation answers that question -- Gebrev was getting ready to sell arms to Ukraine at the time of the explosion. Only two EU companies were selling especially vital arms to Ukraine -- in particular, 120-152mm munitions.
(In 2014 only two manufacturing plants could make these specific rounds Ukraine needed. One was EMCO, the other "under effective Russian control". With other manufacturers, Russia would buy out munitions that Ukraine needed at above-market prices so they would be left out to dry)
EMCO did end up exporting some 120-152mm munitions to Ukraine, but they stopped after Minsk II was signed after Debaltseve in February 2015. EMCO denied this to us when we asked them, but we found pictures of their rounds that were used by the UAF in Avdiivka's promzona.
(Some of these rounds had a 2014 manufacture date on them, making clear that they came from this EMCO contract)
So, clearly EMCO was exporting valuable munitions to Ukraine, and may have been the only possible source for some of them. This clears up why Gebrev and EMCO were being targeted by the GRU -- you cut off EMCO/Gebrev, you sever a vital supply line of munitions to the UAF.
But there's another issue -- this explosion happened before this contract and export was made. Why this October 2014 attack?
We're not totally sure, but we have a few ideas, including simply that the GRU had faulty or out-of-date intelligence.
We're not totally sure, but we have a few ideas, including simply that the GRU had faulty or out-of-date intelligence.
In the weeks leading up to the explosion, the Czech company renting the depot (Imex) received an email from "several customers" who were interested in EMCO's stock sitting at the depot, which included 120mm and 152mm rounds. Gebrev said he didn't want to sell these rounds to them
These "customers" who messaged Imex about these rounds were.... Russian GRU officers Mishkin and Chepiga, who presented themselves as a Tajik and Molovan arms dealer.
You know the rest of the story -- Mishkin and Chepiga, along with four of their GRU colleagues, all converged in Czechia, and before long, the stock of rounds that Gebrev wouldn't sell to these "interested customers" was blown up.
After this, Gebrev and EMCO did sell these same type of arms (though obviously from a different stock) to Ukraine, and Gebrev and his son were poisoned by the GRU in Bulgaria.
Read more on this here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/09/04/gebrev-survives-poisonings-post-mortem/
Read more on this here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/09/04/gebrev-survives-poisonings-post-mortem/
The GRU officers involved in both the arms depot explosion and the poisonings were given Hero of Russia awards, free apartments, and other perks.
Read more here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2021/04/26/how-gru-sabotage-and-assassination-operations-in-czechia-and-bulgaria-sought-to-undermine-ukraine/
Read more here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2021/04/26/how-gru-sabotage-and-assassination-operations-in-czechia-and-bulgaria-sought-to-undermine-ukraine/
