General Andrei Avryanov; Russian Intelligence Chief and His Secret Trips to Iran

General Andrei Avryanov, head of unit 29155 in the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Intelligence Directorate, has very little and contradictory information available in public sources. Last spring, he was accused in the Czech Republic of being responsible for the deadly explosion at an ammunition factory in 2014. He and his subordinates are also suspected of involvement in numerous sabotage operations in Europe and the assassinations of Kremlin opponents. Leaked data from the Russian security service about citizens who crossed the border from 2014 to 2023 indicates that this Russian intelligence official has made multiple secret trips to Iran in the past two years. Iran is one of the few allies of Russia in the war against Ukraine, although officials of the Islamic Republic emphasize Tehran's neutrality. Andrei Avryanov was likely born in 1966 in Tashkent and studied at a military school there. It is unclear where he spent 20 years of his life after graduation; some reports suggest he was involved in the Balkan conflicts and the second Chechen war. The first subsequent information about him dates back to 2004 when he was appointed as the third secretary at the Russian embassy in Poland. Four years later, he was introduced as the military attaché in Norway through the Russian Foreign Ministry, but according to Norwegian media, he never worked at the Russian embassy in Oslo. According to investigations by Bellingcat, a well-known investigative journalism organization, he became the founder and head of unit 29155 in the Russian military intelligence agency in 2008, although some other reports suggest he was appointed to this position in 2013. Bellingcat reports that unit 29155 has about 70 personnel and is specialized in Russia's sabotage operations in Europe. According to this report, Avryanov's first mission in his new position was in September 2009 in Tajikistan amid tensions between Moscow and Dushanbe over new conditions for Russia's use of its military base in Tajikistan. However, for the next ten years, European countries became the main destination for his frequent travels. Investigative journalists believe that the purpose of these visits was to organize a network that has been responsible for multiple sabotage operations since at least 2011. There is ample evidence that agents of unit 29155 were responsible for several explosions in ammunition depots in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria and the assassination attempts on Emilian Gebrev, a Bulgarian businessman, and Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy in the UK, using the nerve agent Novichok. Last summer, it was reported that several former agents of unit 29155 were hired by the Russian presidential office. Meanwhile, Andrei Avryanov, the head of this unit, publicly attended a meeting of the Russian delegation with leaders of African countries for the first time. Investigative journalists believe that Avryanov played a role in the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder and head of Wagner, and subsequently seized the group's contracts in Africa for the benefit of the Russian government. The Russian publication Insider reported in 2023 that following Bellingcat's revelations, unit 29155 focused on organizing proxy forces and military-intelligence operations for Russia in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. New investigations by the Russian section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty indicate that Andrei Avryanov has made numerous trips to Iran during this period. Last week, Russian investigative journalists discovered that a website publishing leaked information had made a vast amount of border guard data or the border branch of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) available to the public under the title 'Cordon (Border) 2023'. The leaked data includes full names, dates of birth, passport numbers and places, and dates of issuance, dates and places of border crossings, destinations, and means of transportation (complete vehicle information, train or flight numbers, private jet specifications). It remains unclear whether this information is the result of a hacking attack or was leaked by an FSB employee or another agency in Russia. Three days after the publication, this data was removed from access, but a group of investigative journalists saved and analyzed it. Investigative journalists from the Russian section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who had previously been conducting joint research with Bellingcat on Andrei Avryanov, learned from the leaked data that this Russian general traveled to Israel several times shortly before the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine and, after the war began, made multiple trips to Iran. According to the Russian section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, based on the leaked data, Andrei Avryanov traveled to Tehran for the first time in June 2022. This trip had not been publicly reported until now, but we know that during those days, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister and then Foreign Minister also visited Tehran, and in return, several delegations from Iran traveled to Russia. At the end of that month, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, met and negotiated with Ibrahim Raisi, his Iranian counterpart, on the sidelines of the Caspian Sea summit in Ashgabat. Officials from both countries stated that the significant increase in these visits indicates an unprecedented enhancement of cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. Concurrently, as Russia and Iran emphasized the expansion of bilateral relations, relations between Russia and Israel faced increasing tensions. During those days, the United States warned for the first time that Iran was delivering suicide drones for use in military attacks against Ukraine to Russia. The dates of Avryanov's subsequent trips to Iran, the Russian intelligence general, were October 1 and 6, 2022. Two weeks later, the Washington Post first reported on a possible agreement between Russia and Iran regarding ballistic missiles; in recent days, Bloomberg reported that European officials believe Iranian missiles may soon be provided to Russia. The United States and its allies have repeatedly expressed serious concerns about the 'unprecedented enhancement of military cooperation between Russia and Iran' since the end of 2022. According to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Avryanov reached the position of Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in the same year. In this position, he made at least three trips to Tehran in 2023; on February 26, June 12, and June 16. No information about these trips has been published in public sources. Meanwhile, his trips to African countries were completely public; on the other hand, there is no information about Avryanov's trips to Africa in the 'Cordon 2023' database. Russia has always denied involvement in sabotage operations in Europe and other countries and also denied receiving weapons from its military allies. The Islamic Republic of Iran, despite abundant evidence regarding the delivery of weapons to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine, also denies these reports.