March 13, 2026

Russia created a secret service for the murder of opposition figures abroad — The Insider

The General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces has created a new secret Russian unit - Center 795 - whose employees conduct operations abroad, including kidnappings and murders of Kremlin opponents. This is stated in an investigation by The Insider. According to journalists, the structure was created in December 2022, and by June 2023 it was almost fully staffed. It employs about 500 officers from the GRU, FSB, FSO. In addition, KGB officers from Belarus are involved in the structure's work. According to journalists, this was done so that Western intelligence agencies could not track the connection with Russia. The Center is formally subordinate to the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov or the Deputy Minister of Defense, but is not part of the GRU structure. It is headed by former Alpha special forces fighter Denis Fisenko, and his deputy is Nikolai Zryachev. Journalists claim that the operational base of the structure is located in Patriot Park in Kubinka, Moscow region, on the territory of the training center of the Kalashnikov concern, which belongs to Sergey Chemezov's Rostec. The structure is financed by Chemezov himself and the co-owner of Kalashnikov Andrey Bokarev, the investigation says. As The Insider notes, initially the center was created for operations in Ukraine, but over time its tasks expanded - employees of the unit began to carry out sabotage at military facilities and assassinations of opposition figures and journalists abroad. According to The Insider, Center 795 has already organized a number of attempted assassinations and sabotage operations that are still under investigation. Journalists have promised to talk about them later. The publication states that Chemezov himself is concerned about the commission of political assassinations by the Center's employees, but the process can no longer be stopped. One of the Center's operatives - Denis Alimov - was detained in February in Colombia at the request of the American authorities. He was charged with murder, conspiracy to kidnap, and financing terrorism. According to investigators, Alimov was tasked with kidnapping family members of Chechen Ahmed Zakayev, who lives in Great Britain. To do this, he recruited the Serbian Darko Durovic, who lives in the USA. It was this step that led to his exposure, The Insider writes. According to the publication, Alimov does not speak English and communicated with Durovic via Google Translate - translating instructions from Russian to Serbian and reports from Serbian to Russian. The FBI gained access to the log of these translations under a court order. Despite the fact that the messages themselves were transmitted through encrypted applications, investigators could read their content in real time.