Thread by @christogrozev

Denis Alimov, FSB Alfa veteran and senior operative of Russia's new and "most secretive" assassination unit, walked into El Dorado Airport in Bogotá on Feb 24 looking like a tourist heading to Cartagena. He walked out in handcuffs.
He was undone by Google Translate.
🧵New @TheInsider investigation with @DerSpiegel — thread below.

The story begins in December 2022. Russia is not winning the war in Ukraine, and needs to ramp up its hybrid warfare on the West. Averyanov's Unit 29155, its previous solution, has been burned by our investigations; its operatives' biometrics were in every customs database.

The solution is an air-gapped, secret unit. Military Unit 75127, also known as Center 795.
The new unit is designed to be untraceable. Hidden inside the Kalashnikov Concern. Reporting directly to Gerasimov. A shadow army in a corporate suit. With PowerPoint presentations.

This "top secret" unit fielded ~500 officers and ran a rigorous vetting process: 535 candidates, 177 rejected (33%). Polygraph. Psych testing. Interview. Recruitment drawn from FSB Alfa, Vympel, GRU Spetsnaz, FSO - everyone wants to join the new elite squad. Very few can.

The secret unit (in fact, a full-cycle intelligence and black-ops operation + a small army) is the brainchild of Andrey Bokarev, billionaire owner of train & weapons manufacturer Transmashholding, and secret puppeteer at the Kalashnikov concern. He wants his own army, like Prigozhin.

To command this unit, he convinces the MoD to appoint Denis Fisenko, Russia's top tactical shooter and decorated FSB Alfa Spetsnaz veteran. Conveniently, he's already working at Kalashnikov.

Fisenko poaches the "creme de la creme" of assassins and saboteurs from everywhere: FSB, FSO (Putin's secret service), even Averyanov's GRU - but only operatives that haven't been burned yet (or so they thought). Even from Belarusian KGB (thanks for their cover ids, @cpartisans)

@cpartisans The new unit is housed at Kalashnikov-owned Patriot Park. Conveniently, it's a stone's throw from GRU's Spetsnaz based at Kubinka, outside Moscow. But it has the plausible deniability of a "weapons testing shooting polygon". Perfect cover for a secret army of killers.

@cpartisans In the early days, the new unit is focused on Ukraine: it has a superior arsenal of drones, SMERCH rocket launchers, and sniper teams - from a base in Belgorod, they try to attack key Ukrainian command centers, HIMARS stocks, political and military leaders. Not much success.

@cpartisans We've been able to reconstruct the complete chain of command and hundreds of named operatives working inside the most secret of all units (at least by design if not in practice).

@cpartisans In 2023, Fisenko recruits Denis Alimov - a trained assassin with a long track record at FSB's Alfa Spetsnaz. His specialty: jailing (or killing, as the case may be) of militants and separatists from the Caucasus, including Chechnya. Now, he'll do the same, but all over the globe.

@cpartisans He begins by recruiting "lures" - people from the Caucasus he has previously jailed - they are offered a get-out-of-jail card if they agree to collaborate - and become baits for the Kremlin's targets. They even get one-way tickets to Europe. With strings attached, of course.

@cpartisans Alimov also works with two notorious Serb recruiters of mercenaries: Dejan Berić and Davor Savičić. Likely through their network, Alimov is introduced to a Montenegro citizen residing in the US. Darko Durovic is perfect for the job: free to travel, ready for anything.

@cpartisans Darko takes two trips to Russia - in July and October 2024. In the second trip, he meets Alimov at a cafe near FSB's monstrosity of a HQ, Lubyanka. There he hands over to him a downpayment of 60k (actual photo below. he literally sent an email boasting with the cash)

@cpartisans After both trips - disguised as "vacation trips to Turkey", the FBI greet the returning Durovic with questions if he went, by chance, to Russia? Both times he barefacedly lies that he didn't - unaware they know literally everything.

So here's the nugget of the story: how DID the FBI know everything? Well, the answer is...because Durovic and his handler from Center 795...Russia's most secretive squad...used Google Translate to translate messages to one another. The FBI literally had ...Durovic's diary, live.

@cpartisans Durovic, monitored by the FBI, traveled to Europe to locate two targets Alimov had tasked him with finding. He had been promised $1.5 million for the "legal deportation" (ahem) of either. A third target, Darko was told, would yield $10 m - dead or alive.

@cpartisans In March 2025, Durovic was arrested. It is not clear what prompted his handler Alimov to take the risky move - a year later - to travel out of Russia, but he did. Maybe in search of a new Durovic? Or maybe taking matters in his own hands? We don't know, but he made that blunder.

@cpartisans On 23 February 2026, leaked messages show, he desperately tried to buy a burner phone for travel abroad. Late that night, he was seen departing Vnukovo airport to Istanbul, under a false name. His maiden voyage. Less than 24 hours he landed in Colombia. In handcuffs.

@cpartisans You can read the full investigation here theins.ru/en/inv/290235

@cpartisans In German here: spiegel.de/panorama/russi…