October 25, 2023

From Saboteurs to Bureaucrats


From Saboteurs to Bureaucrats
Training of a special force GRU unit. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Wikimedia Commons

Journalists from The Insider analyzed the career progression of operatives from the GRU (Russia's military intelligence agency) special unit, which was involved in acts of sabotage in Europe during the 2010s. Their findings reveal that many of these former saboteurs have, in recent years, assumed high-ranking civilian positions in various regions of Russia.

In particular, Nikolai Yezhov, currently the chief federal inspector of Magadan Oblast, and Rustam Jafarov, Putin's first deputy representative in Russia's Far East region, were implicated in a sabotage operation in Bulgaria in 2011. They were associated with Sergei Chepiga, who was suspected of poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in 2018. Together, they orchestrated an explosion at an ammunition depot in the mountain village of Lovnidol in Bulgaria. This depot stored over 3,000 Soviet-made artillery munitions, which, it was believed, Georgia might have been interested in acquiring for use against Russia.

In 2015, another explosion took place in a warehouse in Bulgaria, this time in Iganovo, where missiles and grenades were stored for the armed forces of Ukraine. A few days prior, Nikolai Yezhov, along with Ivan Terentyev, who would later become the federal inspector for Sakhalin region, had arrived in the country. All evidence related to this explosion was obliterated in a fire at the Sofia Forensic Medical Center, but the trail leads to a GRU special unit. Another participant in these sabotage operations, Sergei Romanov, later transitioned into a diplomatic role as a member of the Trade Delegation of the Russian Federation in Thailand.

This trend of former military security forces personnel transitioning into public service continues. For instance, ex-military personnel who fought in Ukraine are now considering careers as teachers in schools.

Meanwhile, officials from Russian regions are traveling to front-line areas, where they are being photographed wearing military uniforms and holding weapons.

You Might Also Like

600 Days of War
  • October 16, 2023

600 Days of War

Russia's War on Ukraine has been going on for 600 days. Some Facts & Figures.
Kadyrov: A Medal for My Son
  • October 12, 2023

Kadyrov: A Medal for My Son

The Head of the Chechen State awarded his son a medal after he extrajudicially beat a prisoner accused of burning a Qu'ran.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955