A Bulgarian journalist worked for Unit 29 - 155 of the Russian GRU, responsible for the black operations of Russian intelligence. The revelations were made by journalists Hristo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov, and their material was published today on the "Insider" website. The two established that the "black operations" department of the GRU, in addition to murders, also deals with hacking and disinformation, collaborating with journalists from all over the world for its goals.
Hristo Grozev made an exclusive comment to Ivo Nikodimov:
"The specific journalist is Dilyana Gaitandzhieva. It was very sad for me that I had to include her name. Over the years, yes, we have had conflicts online, but I always thought that the reason for this was her ideology. But in this case, it becomes clear that she worked in the most terrible department of Russian intelligence - made up of murderers, people who aim to eliminate the opposition, traitors who do not believe in the Kremlin and competitors around the world.
According to Grozev, Gaitandzhieva's relations with the department in question date back to 2017 through informal communication through a closed chat on Twitter.
"By this point, they had already had a relationship for at least a year. It is possible that these relations have ended, since we have not seen any correspondence for about a year. I personally worry about her, since former cadres or agents can not always be safe.".
The disinformation department in question is part of division 29 - 155 of the Russian GRU. Grozev recalled operations of this department, such as the series of explosions in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
"What is new and came as a shock to those watching the Russian special services - last year in August, some Western services and also the FBI accused this department of having its own hacking department. This department deals with both military purposes and disinformation. There was no more information about what this department was doing and even then we started an investigation with Roman to clarify who the members of this hacking department were - a sub-department of the department and secondly - what its goals were. What we found was shocking. Many of the disinformation operations that were considered to be carried out by other departments of the GRU, even the FSB, were carried out precisely by this department. They covered up the traces of their assassination attempts and sabotage operations".
According to Grozev, journalists around the world with whom the unit cooperates know who they are working for, some have guessed themselves or were subsequently told.
BNT also contacted Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, who stated that she was refraining from commenting for now, as she wanted to familiarize herself with the investigation. She promised that she would respond to all allegations with documents.
Source: BNT