According to French newspaper Le Monde, there’s the Alpine region of the Haute-Savoie that 15 agents – members of GRU’s elite Unit 29155 –used as a springboard for ‘clandestine operations’. British, Swiss, French and US intelligence agencies launched a joint clampdown on Russia after the poisoning attempt in April 2015 in Bulgaria, coup attempt in Montenegro in Oct. 2016 and the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter in March 2018.
Members of Unit 29155, specialized in murdering, were operating across Europe from 2014 until the end of 2018, and had their base established for European covert operations.
Le Monde published the names of the officers, some of which had already been published by Bellingcat, an open source investigative group.
Le Monde reported that among the Russians who stayed in France’s Haute-Savoie department in the Alps were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — the alleged cover names of the two GRU agents accused of carrying out the attack on Skripal.
Up until today, no operation of this GRU’s Unit in France has been identified. The Unit’s camp in this region might explain why the Russian services did not want to attract the attention of local authorities by operating on the French soil.
Even though the attempt of poisoning a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, failed, London and its allies gathered it as a serious provocation.
The substance used in the attempted murder of Mr Skripal was identified as from a group of nerve agents known as “Novichoks”, roughly translating as “newcomer” in Russian. After it was used and thrown away in the park, a woman died several weeks after and several people had to ask for a medical treatment.
This was the first time to use chemical weapons in Europe since the end of the World War II.
