“Istraga.ba” and The Geopost publish names of Russian spies operating in Kosovo and Bosnia-Hercegovina, under the UN umbrella

English

Gazeta Express

07/01/2022 13:57

Following the decision of the Kosovo authorities to declare a Russian UNMIK official “persona non grata” last week, Istraga.ba and The Geopost have obtained the names of other Russian GRU military intelligence officers who operated in Kosovo and Bosnia in Hercegovina, by serving under the UN missions in respective countries.

Andrei Nikolayevich Antonov is not the only one. At least five other Russian diplomats who served in UN Mission (UNMIK) in Kosovo were operatives of the Russian GRU intelligence service. In the last hours of 2021, the Kosovo authorities declared a Russian UNMIK official a “persona non grata”. Antonov went on vacation to Russia a few days earlier. It was back home when he got to understand that he had been declared a “persona non grata” and that he could no longer return to Kosovo. He thus became the second Russian official serving in UNMIK to be declared a “persona non grata” by Kosovo. The first one was Mikhail Krasnoshchekov, who was deported in May 2019.

However, he and Antonov are not the only members of the Russian GRU who have served in UNMIK. International sources have confirmed the names of several other GRU officers. At the very beginning of the UNMIK mission in Kosovo, Russian intelligence officials aimed to provoke inter-ethnic tensions in order to delay the negotiation process on the final status of Kosovo and tried to present Serb localities and Serbian Orthodox churches as endangered sites.

Following the declaration of the independence of Kosovo, Russian officials at UNMIK sought to present the work of Kosovo’s institutions as weak and to fabricate cases of violence against Serbs in Kosovo, which UNMIK then presented at the regular reports at the UN Security Council. Russian intelligence officials at UNMIK have been largely engaged in challenging Kosovo’s sovereignty and national security, by trying to portray Kosovo as a “failed state”. They have recently engaged in inciting riots in Kosovo north, in Serb-dominated municipalities, by supporting Serb illegal structures in Kosovo and by cooperating with Serb criminals to obstruct the work of local and international institutions which are trying to establish rule of law and stop smuggling, organized crime and corruption in the Kosovo north. Below are the names of GRU officers who served in UNMIK.

Igor Kulga

“I started my military service in 1986, as a cadet of the Military Academy. After graduation, I went through several positions as an officer in the army of the Russian Federation”, wrote Kulga in his biography. His Linkedin profile states that he is an experienced security guard with a proven history of work in the international affairs industry. Skilled in crisis management, government, emergency management, physical security and strategic planning. A strong professional in military and security services with a master’s degree in public administration from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. He is currently a UN official in Egypt, and his last military position was “Head of Sector in the Department of Military Cooperation”. Kulga was in Kosovo from 2007 to 2010.

Olga Mokrova

Olga Mokrova was also in the United Nations Department of Security and Safety (UNDSS) in Kosovo, as part of the Military Intelligence Service. According to her profile, she worked as a military intelligence analyst at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 2003 to 2006. Mokorova served in Kosovo from 2009 to 2010 and currently works at the United Nations Department of Homeland Security in the Middle East. She was educated at the Russian Military Academy.

Vyacheslav Gannenko

This officer of the Russian military intelligence service GRU was in Kosovo during 2002 and 2003. Vyacheslav Gannenko served as part of the Russian police contingent in Kosovo (UNMIK Police). He previously served as an intelligence officer of the former KGB (Soviet Secret Service). He is currently serving as Commander of the Russian Police Contingent of the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

Alexander Kasatkin

Kasatkin is another operative of the GRU in Kosovo. He used to work for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) from 2007 to 2010. According to international souces, Alexander Kasatkin was a colonel in the Russian Military Intelligence Service (GRU). Prior to his appointment to UNMIK, he was a member of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served in Sarajevo.