Intel gathering

A look at the Russian spy agency behind the election meddling

When most people think of Soviet or Russian intelligence, they tend to think of the KGB. But, indeed, the GRU existed throughout the Soviet Union and was responsible for much of its overseas espionage.

“In the West everything was considered KGB because that was the catchword, even though at least half of it was GRU,” said Pavel Felgengauer, a military expert in Moscow.

The GRU—since 2010 now called the GU or General Directorate but still widely referred to by its original name-- is the foreign military intelligence agency part of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is tasked with supplying battlefield intelligence as well as planning how to disrupt and sabotage the enemy in the event of war.

The agency also encapsulates special operations command, with battalions of elite special forces troops —- known as spetsnaz -— under its direction. These units have been fighting covertly in Syria and eastern Ukraine and it’s not impossible to occasionally spot the agency’s Batman-like logo on off-duty soldiers in Moscow, wearing sand-colored uniforms camouflaged for Syria’s deserts.

All three Russian intelligence agencies, the SVR, the FSB and the GRU, carry out foreign intelligence. But as a military organization, the GRU has a reputation among experts as bringing more of a war-fighting mentality than the SVR foreign intelligence branch, which largely operates under diplomatic cover. The GRU is seen as ready to carry out messy, violent operations, including those more likely to become public, such as spectacular assassinations.