Passing of a spy chief

Head of Russian spy agency accused of British poison attack, Igor Korobov, made a Hero of Russia for his service in the post.

MOSCOW: The head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency that the West has blamed for a string of brazen attacks died after “a serious and long illness”, the Russian defence ministry said.

State news agency TASS cited the ministry as saying Igor Korobov (pic), 62, who ran the spy agency since 2016, had been made a Hero of Russia for his service in the post, the highest state award.

Britain has accused the GRU of attempting to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent in the city of Salisbury; the Netherlands has accused it of trying to hack the global chemical weapons watchdog; and US intelligence agencies say it tried to hack the 2016 presidential election.

Russia denies all those allegations.

Speculation about Korobov’s fate had been growing since an unconfirmed Russian media report that he had been summoned by President Vladimir Putin after the Skripal affair and severely criticised for the operation which left the Skripals alive and the GRU a target of mockery in the Western media.

Korobov was absent from a ceremony in Moscow this month where Putin and other senior officials celebrated the centenary of the GRU, with the Russian leader praising its skill and “unique abilities”.

Operatives of the agency, widely known by its old acronym of GRU, set an example for a future generation of military spies, said Putin, himself a former intelligence officer, citing their readiness to sacrifice everything “for the motherland”. — Reuters