Jelimkhan Khangoshvili was well-known, but little was known about him until he was assassinated on August 23, 2019, in Berlin, the capital of Europe. Khangoshvili was a Chechen separatist, Georgian army officer, Georgian spy, or, in the eyes of the Russians, a 'terrorist'. Born in Georgia in 1979, Khangoshvili was an ethnic Chechen. During the Second Chechen War of 1999-2000, he fought against the Russians on behalf of the separatist republic of Russia, the Ichkeria Chechen Republic. After the defeat of the Chechen separatists in the war, Khangoshvili moved to Georgia and became an officer in the Georgian army. He is thought to have had links to Georgian intelligence.
Chechen separatism lost momentum a decade ago, but Moscow and Grozny have not forgiven Khangoshvili or his comrades-in-arms. Under a Russian law enacted in 2006, Russian spies have the right to kill "enemies of the state" outside Russia. Khangoshvili is also a "state enemy" in Russia's eyes, leading to an assassination attempt in Georgia in 2016. Fearing for his life, Khangoshvili fled to Germany with his family, but death did not follow him there either. On August 23, 2019, Khangoshvili was assassinated in a park in Berlin. German authorities directly blamed the Russian military intelligence agency GU (управле́ние управле́ние шта́ба шта́ба хых Сил Росси́йской Федера́ции, 'Glavnoye Upravlenie Federelnoga Shataba Voruzhiyonnik Sil Rosiskoye Federatzi') for the killings.
Analysts believe that the GU unit involved in the killings is 'Unit 29155' (Отряд 29155). The unit is headquartered at the 161st Special Purpose Specialist Training Center in the Izmilovo district, east of the Russian capital, Moscow. According to Western analysts, the main responsibility of Unit 29155 is to kill 'enemies of the state' outside Russia and to weaken the Western world by carrying out various subversive activities!
Russia's conflict with the West is nothing new. Russia has been in conflict with the West since the founding of the Russian state. During the Cold War in the last century, the conflict in the Western world with the former Soviet Union reached its peak. The conflict subsided for a few years after the end of the Cold War, but it soon took on new forms. But the current situation is different in one way from the Cold War - Russia's military weakness. During the Cold War, there was a kind of military balance between the Soviet Union and the Western world, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this balance shifted completely to the Western world. Due to economic and military weaknesses, Moscow has adopted new strategies to deal with the Western world.
Officials in Moscow know that Russia's involvement in a major "arms race" with the West is harmful. In fact, one of the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union was the economic weakness caused by excessive military spending. Moscow does not want to repeat this mistake, and for this reason Moscow has chosen a new tactic to deal with the Western world, which analysts call 'hybrid warfare'. The goal of this tactic is to expose the internal conflicts in the Western countries through propaganda, cyber warfare, spreading false information, etc., so that the Western world is forced to deal with its own problems and Russia gets a 'breathing space'. Of course, this strategy is not something fancy, because the Western world uses the same strategy against Russia or other rival states.
Unit 29155 is a tool in Russia's hybrid war against the Western world. Analysts believe the force was formed in the wake of the Russo-Georgian war in 2008, but before 2018, the Western world had no clear idea about it. Except for a handful of information published in the media, the Western world has not released details about the force.
According to the information received, the commander of Unit 29155 is Major General Andrei Averianov. Averyan, a graduate of the Tashkent Military Academy in Soviet Uzbekistan, fought in the First Chechen War in the 1990s and the Second Chechen War in the 2000s. After the formation of 'Unit 29155' in 2008, he was appointed its commander. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. But in 2015, the Russian government awarded him Russia's highest military medal, the Hero of the Russian Federation, which suggests that the organization has been able to achieve special achievements.
The members of Unit 29155 are usually experienced soldiers and army officers. Some took part in the Afghan war in the 1980s and the Chechen wars in the 1990s and 2000s, while others fought in the civil war in Ukraine in the 2010s. According to Western analysts, members of Unit 29155 specialize in assassinations, sabotage and other chaotic activities. Each member of this unit uses multiple pseudonyms, and their level of confidentiality is so high that members of other GU units do not know much about them.
According to Western analysts, members of this unit receive specialized training in a variety of subversive activities, including assassinations and bombings. An inspection of the unit's abandoned training center in Moscow found that they had been trained in the use of US, German, Austrian and Belgian weapons. In 2012, the Russian government awarded bonuses to members of the unit for "special achievements in military activities."
Since the establishment of Unit 29155, it has been the subject of a concerted and ongoing plan to destabilize Europe, according to Western intelligence agencies. Western officials are concerned about the agency's activities, as they have no clear idea about it, and it is not possible to predict when or where they will launch an attack.
In 2015, a Bulgarian arms dealer named Emilian Gebrev was poisoned to death, and 29,155 members of the unit were later charged. In 2016, Montenegro's opposition was accused of plotting a coup, and the Montenegrin government blamed Unit 29155 for its involvement. In 2017, a Spanish court convicted the unit's 29,155 members of aiding the separatist movement in Catalonia.
In 2018, an attempt was made to assassinate Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer and traitor in Britain, and Unit 29155 was blamed for this. In fact, it was at the time of Scripps' assassination attempt that the Western media began discussing Unit 29155 for the first time. Former German Chechen separatist commander Jelimkhan Khangoshvili was assassinated in Germany in 2019, and Unit 29155 was blamed for it. Most recently, in 2020, US intelligence agencies claimed that members of Unit 29155 had paid the Taliban to kill US troops in Afghanistan.
The point here is that Russia has denied each of these allegations. Western nations, on the other hand, have consistently blamed Moscow (frankly, Unit 29155K) for these. Needless to say, both sides have distorted the truth a bit in their own interests, but there is no easy way to understand the truth.
As can be seen from the above examples, attempts to assassinate Gabrev and Skripal have failed, coup attempts in Montenegro have failed, and the separatist movement in Catalonia in Spain has not succeeded. Based on this, some Western analysts think that Unit 29155 is actually inefficient and unsuccessful. Here the position of the Western world has become mutually exclusive. On the one hand, they are claiming that Unit 29155 is a very dangerous Russian organization, capable of destabilizing the Western world. On the other hand, they claim that Unit 29155 is inefficient and failed. The question is, if the unit fails, how terrible is it?
First, there is no real evidence as to whether Unit 29155 was actually involved in the attempted assassination of Gabrev. The big question is why Moscow could assassinate an ordinary arms dealer. Unit 29155 was not named in the incident before Scripps' assassination attempt. So it can be assumed that the Russians may not be involved in this effort, but there is no way to be sure.
Second, the possibility of Unit 29155's involvement in Montenegro's coup attempt cannot be ruled out. Because, if the Western government of Montenegro could be overthrown, Montenegro would refrain from joining NATO and Russia has been opposed to the expansion of NATO from the beginning. But the coup failed and Montenegro is now a member of NATO.
Third, Catalonia is not isolated from Spain, but there is no reason to think that it would be sympathetic to Moscow even if the region were independent. Separatism in Catalonia is not a new phenomenon, and there is no Russian influence in the region. But it is possible to destabilize Spain in NATO and the European Union by inciting Catalonia's separatism, and that is Moscow's main goal. Whether Catalonia is independent or not, it is in Moscow's interest to destabilize Europe.
Fourth, Moscow has vehemently denied allegations that Skripal was involved in the assassination attempt. Moscow says Skripal was arrested in Russia in 2004 and released in 2010 in exchange for the release of several Russian spies detained in Britain. Eight years later, Moscow has no interest in trying to assassinate Skripal. On the other hand, according to Western analysts, Moscow wants to give a warning to future traitors by attempting to assassinate Scripps.
Fifth, it is almost certain that Unit 29155 was involved in the murder of Khangoshvili. This is not the first time Moscow has killed Chechen separatists abroad. German authorities have also arrested a Russian national in connection with the murder. The man was charged in 2012 with the murder of a Russian businessman in Moscow, and the Russian government provided his name to Interpol. Presumably, the unit used this criminal to kill 29155 Khangoshvili.
After all, the unit paid 29,155 dollars to the Taliban to kill US troops - a charge that has been the subject of controversy. U.S. officials have acknowledged that they have no evidence. Taliban militants have been killing U.S. troops for a long time, and they do not need to pay separately to continue this work. Both Moscow and the Taliban have denied the allegations. But it is also true that in recent years Moscow has provided financial and military support to the Taliban.
All in all, the scale of success can be considered heavier than the failure of Unit 29155. However, some Western experts have warned against underestimating the unit's capabilities. According to them, the operations described are only a small part of the activities of Unit 29155, and it is possible that information on many more successful operations of Unit 29155 has not yet been released.
Overall, it appears that the main purpose of Unit 29155 was to wipe out the 'enemies of the state' as well as to deepen the various crises within the Western states. As a result, Western countries will be preoccupied with their own internal problems and will have less capacity or opportunity to interfere in Russian foreign policy. Compared to the Western world, Russia's military weakness is unlikely to be eliminated abruptly, and it is likely that special intelligence units, such as Unit 29155, will continue to be used to implement Russian foreign policy.
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