The New York Times recently revealed that the secretive GRU Unit 29155 associated with the assassinations and sabotage “secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan – including targeting American troops” working via key middleman, Rahmatullah Azizi. It has long been suspected that the Russian government supports Taliban but this new story has shaken many. It means Unit 29155, previously described as “engaged in a campaign to destabilize Europe”, have stretch their influence into new regions of the world and have directly organized the deaths of US forces.
We remember that in 2016 two officers of Unit 29155 attempted to kill the Montenegrin prime minister and seized the parliament building. In Spain it is reported that the high-ranking GRU officer Denis Sergeyev traveled to Catalonia twice before 2017 independence referendum there. In 2015, they attempted to poison Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, apparently, they made two attempts one in Sofia and a month later at his home on the Black Sea. In March 2018 again two officers tried to poison former spy Sergei Skripal at his home in Great Britain.
This recent story is the first time that we have learnt about the activity of 29155 that takes place outside Europe’s borders. Sources have identified Rahmatullah Azizi as the middleman who distributed money, probably hundreds of thousands in US dollars, from the Unit 29155 to the Taliban-linked fighters to pay for the successful attacks on US forces. Azizi, originated from Northern Afghanistan, made regular trips to his homeland but has now probably returned to Russia. Azizi has been clearly linked to the financial side of this activity between Taliban and 29155 but new information reveals his extremely close links to the unit.
New passport information made available to nightingale has revealed that Azizi probably traveled using a passport with the number 654341494. Bellingcat’s investigation into the suspects behind the Skripal poisoning and investigations into Col. Eduard Shishmakov involved in the Montenegro coup revealed the cover-identity passports issued to 29155 for their travel all began with 65434. The fake passports Chepiga (alias Boshirov) used 654341294, Mishkin (alias Petrov) used 654341297 and Shishmakov (alias Shirakov) used 65434323. The fact that Azizi had access to such a passport proves that he was more than a simple middle man and was given the same privileges as GRU officers.
nightingale will keep looking into Azizi and activities in Afghanistan and we will return when we will know more.
