Journalists established Russia’s involvement in attacks on US diplomats

Russian intelligence services may have used secret weapons against US diplomats, causing the so-called Havana Syndrome.

A yearlong investigation by The Insider, in collaboration with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel, has uncovered evidence.

Russian military intelligence could have been involved in a series of attacks on U.S. intelligence and high-level officials. They could have used secret weapons that caused symptoms of the so-called Havana Syndrome.

The first cases of alleged use of these weapons date back to 2016. It was then that American diplomats in China began to complain about specific symptoms that would later be called the Havana Syndrome.

The victim was an employee of the State Department in Shanghai. He suddenly began to feel very dizzy, had difficulty keeping his balance, and even getting out of bed was a problem. Sometimes he would just fall down while walking in the street, and he began to have problems with his short-term memory. After a few months, the symptoms disappeared, but in 2018 he began to lose his balance again on a flat spot.

Many of the victims were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, neural damage, or bilateral semicircular canal dehiscence.

Some victims reported that their symptoms were preceded by strange sounds accompanied by ear pain. In addition, they described the effect of the “weapon” as a narrowly directed “beam” that could be avoided by taking a few steps to the side.

Pulsed microwave radiation is one of two technologies that scientists have theorized as the possible cause of the condition. Either of these approaches may result in the victim appearing to hear audible sounds, hums and clicks, through a phenomenon termed the Frey Effect.

The Russian trail

Investigators note that during many cases of Havana Syndrome, strange persons were seen with the victims, behaving unnaturally and in some cases had a strong accent.

By a strange coincidence, employees of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, officers of the GRU’s assassination Unit 29155, were on business trips in the cities at the same time. Some of them were even recognized by the victims from their photos: they were Russian GRU agents Yegor Gordienko (Frankfurt) and Albert Averyanov (Tbilisi).

Indirect confirmation of the use of covert acoustic weapons by Russian operatives was also obtained from an accounting document that ended up in the hands of journalists. It states that Ivan Terentyev, a participant in a number of business trips to the sites of the incidents, handed over to the foundation an “individual work” entitled “Potential capabilities of non-lethal acoustic weapons in military (combat) operations in the city.”

Journalists cannot give a precise answer as to the purpose of such attacks on US diplomats, but noted that a number of operations have had their effect: many employees do not want to work in the Russian direction, realizing that they may become disabled and not even receive proper assistance. Many of the victims faced the fact that their complaints were attributed to mental disorders.