Alleged High-Level Russian Intelligence Officer Arrested Inside the Ukraine

Alleged Russian intelligence agent caught outside Kyiv claiming to be FSB general

Kyiv Post, October 24, 2014

Pictured with hands behind his back on Oct. 23 is Nikolai Grechishkin of Moscow, who Ukraine’s State Security Service says is a high-level Russian agent who has been continuously conducting covert operations and supporting separatist activity since January when he arrived in Ukraine. © sbu.gov.ua

Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) says on Oct. 23 it apprehended a high-level Russian intelligence agent and a commissioned military officer who has been continuously coordinating separatist activity inside the country since January. 

Captured on the outskirts of Kyiv, he was identified as Nikolai Grechishkin of Moscow and was allegedly using journalistic cover as the deputy chief editor of Rossiyskiye Novosti (Russian News), according to an SBU statement released on Oct. 24.

At a briefing the same day, SBU chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko told journalists that Grechishkin was most recently responsible for orchestrating the Oct. 13 rally of National Guardsmen at the presidential office who demanded their discharge after serving the requisite six months.

“He isn’t just detained, we’re saying this puppeteer, who has been living in Kyiv Oblast the last month, organized and coordinated the following offenses: inciting provocation of so-called protests near the Presidential Administration,” Nalyvaichenko told journalists.

During his arrest, according to the SBU statement, Grechishkin claimed to be a general in Russia’s Federal Security Service, the nation’s KGB-successor agency. Meanwhile, the SBU says he is a commissioned Russian officer and a former marine who is an FSB-recruited agent.

An expired identification card as the aide to a Russian member of parliament was found among the personal effects of alleged Russian agent Nikolai Grechishkin on Oct. 23. (sbu.gov.ua)

Since April, when military activity in eastern Ukraine started, Grechishkin allegedly coordinated the activity of armed separatist group leaders at the behest of the FSB. He assisted in organizational matters and helped procure resources.

“He established, organized, coordinated and supported sustained clandestine contacts with leaders of terrorist organizations DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LNR (Luhansk People’s Republic),” reads the statement.

This Russian-made RPG-26 Aglen anti-tank rocket launcher was allegedly found inside the Kyiv Oblast residence of purported Russian intelligence agent Nikolai Grechishkin on Oct. 23 by Ukrainian Security Service officers. (sbu.gov.ua)

The alleged Russian agent also purportedly organized the supply of armored Russia Tigr vehicles to eastern Ukraine, 130 tank men from Sverdlovsk in Russia, and volunteers from “radical kozak groups inside Russia,” the SBU said.

He was also responsible for allegedly securing the transport of dead Russian soldiers killed in action from Ukraine and for hiding their bodies in-country.

A Russian-manufactured RPG-26 Aglen anti-tank rocket launcher was found at his residence in Kyiv Oblast. Among his personal effects were an expired parliamentary aide identification card, journalistic accreditation, and business cards of high-level to personnel in Russia’s Defense Ministry and Migration Service, according to the SBU.