British Intelligence: The Skripal Poisoning Commander Under Suspicion Of Prigozhin’s Death
- 26.08.2023, 8:08
The Major General heads the secret GRU unit.
British intelligence suspected GRU Major General Andrey Averyanov, allegedly responsible for the Salisbury poisoning back in 2018, of involvement in the death of the Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. inews writes about this, citing intelligence sources.
Averyanov heads GRU unit 29155. It has been described by The New York Times and Bellingcat as a covert GRU unit for sabotage operations in Europe, including the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018.
Two British intelligence sources said that Averyanov led an operation to replace Wagner PMC mercenaries in Africa with 20,000 Russian troops and had a “long grudge” with Prigozhin. The Financial Times, citing several informed sources, reported that before his death, Prigozhin visited Africa, where he tried to prevent the GRU from taking control of his operations. The WSJ's interlocutors claimed that a month earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin recommended that the CAR president distance himself from the founder of the Wagner PMC.
At the same time, Western officials continue to believe that the Russian president is most likely behind the death of Prigozhin. “Not much happens in Russia without Putin’s participation,” said US President Joe Biden.
“Historically, Putin prefers “cold” revenge. So the way and time of Prigozhin's death is not surprising. Many, including myself, thought his days were numbered. Around the mentioned name (Averyanov) there is a lot of talk. This is also not surprising,” said a former British intelligence officer.
Earlier, Bellingcat investigative reporter Christo Grozev drew attention to the fact that during a meeting between Russian dictator Putin and African leaders in early August, Averyanov stood next to him, and the head of the Kremlin regime introduced him as “the person who will be responsible for security on your continent.” Averyanov was responsible for decades in the GRU for “assassination attempts on competitors, dissenters and “traitors,” Grozev stressed.
Prigozhin's Embraer Legacy 600 plane crashed on August 23 while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It fell in the Tver region, 50 km from Putin's residence. There were ten people on board, including commander of the Wagner PMC Dmitry Utkin.