Spy work

Russia's GRU: Spy agency known for brazenness back in the headlines

For an intelligence service that is supposed to operate in the shadows, the GRU seems to attract a lot of headlines.
The GRU -- formally known as Main Directorate of the General Staff -- has long been accused by the West of orchestrating brazen and high-profile attacks, including the hacking of Democratic Party email accounts during the 2016 US presidential election and the 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England.
Now the spy agency is again at the center of international attention, after reports that US intelligence concluded GRU operatives offered cash incentives to the Taliban to kill American and British troops in Afghanistan.
The news has already caused a political storm in Washington, with congressional leaders demanding answers from the Trump administration. But observers also wonder why the Russian intelligence agency would run an operation that potentially conflicts with Russia's own stated goals to bring warring parties to the table in Afghanistan and avoid a precipitous collapse of the central government.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the story -- first reported by the New York Times -- was a "hoax," echoing President Donald Trump's suggestion that the reported intelligence may be "phony" and the story false.