At the Kremlin’s behest: Russia has set up a secret unit to carry out political assassinations abroad
14 March 20:18
In December 2022, a secret unit of the Russian security services was formed to carry out assassinations and abductions of Kremlin opponents abroad.
This was reported by The Insider, citing sources in law enforcement agencies, according to [Kommersant].
According to the publication, the unit was named Center 795 (military unit 75127) and was formed by decision of the General Staff to expand the capabilities of the special services following the start of a full-scale war with Ukraine. The center was conceived as a fully autonomous structure capable of operating independently of Defense Ministry units. The center’s leadership reports directly to Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov or his deputy.
The Center comprises about 500 officers selected from the FSB (including “Alfa” and “Vympel”), the GRU, and the KGB of Belarus. Cooperation on this scale between the Ministry of Defense and the FSB took place for the first time. A key role was played by former members of General Andrei Averianov’s team, who previously led Unit 29155 in the GRU. The immediate commander of Center 795 became former “Alfa” operative Denis Fisenko. Salaries in the unit reach half a million rubles for rank-and-file officers and 3 million for leadership—these payments come from the Kalashnikov Concern in addition to the Ministry of Defense, writes The Insider.
The unit is based on the grounds of the “Patriot” park in Kubinka, near Moscow, at the Kalashnikov Concern’s training center. The center is funded by Kalashnikov co-owner Andrei Bokarev and Rostec head Sergei Chemezov, a close friend and colleague of Vladimir Putin.
The unit is divided into three departments: reconnaissance, assault, and combat support. The reconnaissance department has 19 sections, including a sniper unit, which suggests training for targeted assassinations. Initially, the center was created for operations in Ukraine (attacks on command posts and military and political leaders), but it did not achieve any particular success, the publication notes. Later, its tasks expanded to include sabotage at military facilities and assassination attempts on opposition figures and journalists abroad.
One of the operations failed completely. As a result, the center’s officer, Denis Alimov, was detained on February 24 at the Bogota airport (Colombia) at the request of the United States. According to The Insider, he was tasked with kidnapping family members of Chechen opposition politician Akhmed Zakayev, who lives in London. To do this, Alimov recruited Darko Durovic, a Serbian living in the US. Due to the language barrier (Alimov did not speak English or Serbian, and Durovic did not speak Russian), they communicated via Google Translate, translating instructions from Russian to Serbian and back.
The FBI obtained a court order to access the translation log and read all correspondence in real time. Durovic was arrested in the U.S. in March 2025, and Alimov is currently awaiting extradition to the U.S. He faces charges of organizing a murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and financing terrorism.
