Former Belarusian KGB "Alpha" operatives hold leadership positions in a new Russian super-secret special unit designed for assassinations abroad
Agents of this special unit were exposed when they used Google Translate.
Dmitry Drozdov (left) and Sergey Radkevich
Russian special services have created a new autonomous structure for liquidating political opponents and conducting sabotage abroad — Center 795. The Insider's investigation details this.
Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities began to massively and systematically use sabotage and assassinations abroad. Since previous intelligence structures, particularly the unit of General Andrei Averyanov (military unit 29155), were seriously compromised after a series of failures and the de-anonymization of officers in the global press, there arose a need for new resources.
Thus, in December 2022, by decision of the Russian General Staff, Center 795 (military unit 75127) was established. This super-secret and autonomous structure was conceived as a more closed alternative to GRU groups for carrying out the most critical tasks, including political assassinations and kidnappings, but without the systemic errors and "exposed" personnel of the past.
As The Insider found out, by June 2023, the unit was almost fully staffed. Formally, "Center 795" reports directly to the Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, but its core consists of former operatives from the FSB Special Purpose Center ("Alpha" and "Vympel" groups).
"Patriot" Park in Kubinka became the base for the center, and financial support was provided by Rostec head Sergey Chemezov and Kalashnikov co-owner Andrey Bokarev. This allowed for paying officers very high salaries. For example, the head of a department receives about $5400 per month just from "Kalashnikov," and there is also a salary from the Ministry of Defense.
The structure of Center 795 is impressive in its scale. A total of about 500 officers serve in it, distributed among three departments: intelligence, assault, and combat support.
The intelligence department includes nine sections: from monitoring social networks and intercepting satellite communications to foreign agent networks (12th section) and sniper groups (19th section), specifically intended for targeted liquidations. The assault department consists of autonomous strike groups that are unaware of each other's existence, ensuring the survivability of the entire network if one cell fails. The third department provides combat support and is armed with T-90A tanks and "Smerch" multiple rocket launcher systems.
A special place in the leadership of this secret structure is occupied by natives of Belarus. The chief of staff of Center 795, Dmitry Drozdov, and the head of the intelligence department, Sergey Radkevich, are veterans of the Belarusian KGB "Alpha" group.
Their recruitment into the Russian special service, as the investigators explain, was a deliberate move: officers from an allied country do not have a Russian institutional biography, which allows them to more easily avoid the attention of foreign counterintelligence.
Both were introduced into the unit's structure through civilian positions at Kalashnikov Concern JSC, which helped conceal their connection to the Russian military and official special services. Radkevich, together with his deputy Alexey Ilyushin, oversees the most classified departments dealing with agent networks abroad.
How Google Translate exposed an agent
As the investigators note, despite the high level of secrecy and technical equipment, the unit faced a spectacular failure involving one of its key operatives — 42-year-old Denis Alimov.
His career began in the Stavropol OMON (riot police) and continued in the Moscow FSB "Alpha." Alimov had connections at the highest level, including personally with Ramzan Kadyrov, whom he helped search for a missing nephew in 2023. As part of Center 795, Alimov was engaged in the "Chechen direction." One of his tasks was to kidnap regime critics in Europe.
To conduct operations in the West, Alimov needed an agent. This became Darko Duravic, who resided in the United States. In October 2024, in a restaurant near Lubyanka, Akimov handed him $60,000 as an advance and promised $1.5 million for each successfully "deported" target. The main victims were to be family members of Chechen emigrant Akhmed Zakayev, who resides in Great Britain.
However, the operation failed. Officer Denis Alimov only spoke Russian. His main agent, Darko Duravic, spoke Serbo-Croatian and English. To transmit operational instructions and receive reports, they used the online service Google Translate.
Since the service belongs to an American company, the FBI, under a court order, gained access to all correspondence logs. American special services observed in real-time how Duravic tracked a target at a "white villa by the sea" in Europe and searched the internet for Glock pistols.
Denis Alimov was detained on February 24 at Bogota airport (Colombia). He arrived there on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, using standard operational cover — the image of a tourist with a hotel reservation in Cartagena. The arrest was the result of joint work by Interpol and American special services. Alimov has been charged with conspiracy to murder and support for terrorism, facing life imprisonment in the USA.
According to The Insider, Center 795 has already organized a number of assassination attempts and acts of sabotage that are still under investigation. The publication promises to tell about them later. However, the very exposure of the structure and activities of this unit creates serious problems for Russian special services, especially in connection with the first arrest of its employee.
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