A new investigation conducted by three media companies that was released this week points to an elite Russian military unit being behind the so-called “Havana Syndrome” attacks on U.S. officials across the world over the last several years.
The investigation by The Insider, an investigative magazine by Russian exiles; CBS News’ “60 Minutes”; and the German publication Der Spiegel was conducted over a period of five years.
The attacks are believed to involve directed energy weapons that are pointed at the individuals who are being targeted by the unit.
The attacks were initially thought to have first started in 2016 in Havana, Cuba, and include a range of neurological symptoms, including intense headaches that hit erupt instantly, loss of balance, memory problems, and numerous hearing issues. In some cases, the neurological damage lasted years or was permanent and forced those who were attacked to retire.
However, the report said that the first attacks happened in 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany, when four Americans were attacked and three CIA officers were attacked in Ukraine.
The U.S. Intelligence Community assessed last year that a foreign adversary was likely not behind the incidents and that those reporting symptoms likely had underlying health problems. The assessment was based on the inputs of different U.S. intelligence agencies, some of which had “low” confidence in the assessment that a foreign adversary was not behind the incidents.
“60 Minutes” highlighted a previous interview that they did with Dr. David Relman of Stanford University who studied the brains of those U.S. officials who were experiencing.
“What we found was we thought clear evidence of an injury to the auditory and vestibular system of the brain,” he said. “Everything starting with the inner ear where humans perceive sound and sense balance, and then translate those perceptions into brain electrical signals.”
The study concluded that “directed pulsed (radio frequency) energy … appears to be the most plausible mechanism.”
Recently retired Army lieutenant colonel Greg Edgreen, who led the Pentagon’s investigation into the attacks, said that he strongly disagrees with the assessment from the U.S. Intelligence Community and that he believes Russia is behind the attacks.
He said that those were attacked were the top performing officers and agents in their respective agencies. He said that everyone who was attacked had been involved at one time or another in work countering the Russian government.
Investigative reporter Christo Grozev — who uncovered the secretive Russian assassination and sabotage unit, which is called Unit 29155 — said that accounting papers from Russia show that an officer in the unit was paid a bonus for work that he completed on “potential capabilities of non-lethal acoustic weapons.”
The news show also spoke with a woman — who refused to be named over safety concerns, but did appear on camera — who says that she was attacked with the weapon in October 2021.
The woman is the wife of a Justice Department official who was with the embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. She’s a nurse who a Ph.D. in anesthesiology.
That same week, a U.S. official, their spouse, and their child were attacked in a separate incident.
“60 Minutes” learned of a phone call that was intercepted nearby the attacks in Tbilisi in which a Russian asks, “Is it supposed to have blinking green lights?” and “Should I leave it on all night.”
The Russian, whose name is Albert Averyanov, is a member Unit 29155 and is the son of a top Russian military commander.
Sources tell us that an investigation centered on this Russian, Albert Averyanov. His name, on travel manifests and phone records, appears alongside known members of Unit 29155. He is also the son of the commander.
Averyanov’s phone was off during the attacks, the report said, but noted that someone in the area logged onto his personal email account during the incidents and that officials believe that it was Averyanov.
The nurse who was attacked said that she managed to move herself from the spot where the attack happened and that she looked at the family’s security camera and took a photo of a vehicle that she had never seen before and that she went outside and saw a man.
When she was shown a picture of Averyanov, the woman said that she had a strong visceral reaction to the photo and that it looked exactly like the man that she saw.
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