Second GRU Officer Indicted in Montenegro Coup Unmasked

11/22/18
Two officers from Russia’s military intelligence (GRU) are sought, via Interpol, as suspected organizers of an unsuccessful 2016 coup in Montenegro, a small country on the Adriatic Sea in Southeastern Europe. The true identity of one officer is public, while the other officer is known only under his cover identity. Bellingcat has been able to unmask the real identity of the second suspect indicted by the Montenegro prosecutor, and to confirm that he is indeed a senior GRU officer. The name of the first Russian officer, Eduard Shishmakov, and his employment with GRU at the time of the events in Montenegro, was confirmed in a series of investigations by Bellingcat and its Russian investigative partner The Insider. The second person is only known to Montenegro prosecutors under his cover identity, Vladimir Popov. It is under this cover name that he is being sought by Interpol and by Montenegro’s partner law enforcement agencies in Europe. Bellingcat and the Insider have now succeeded in unmasking “Popov”’s actual identity, which is Vladimir Nikolaevich Moiseev. Moiseev, who is a lieutenant colonel or colonel with Russian military intelligence, was born on 29.06.1980, the same date as the fictional “Popov.”

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