Released during the August prisoner exchange, journalist The Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich published his first piece after returning from Russia — an investigation into the work of the FSB Counterintelligence Operations Department (CIOD). It is headed by Lieutenant General Dmitry Minaev, who was on the plane carrying prisoners expelled from Russia.
One of the tasks of this unit was a campaign to arrest American citizens to replenish the exchange fund, aiming to extract FSB assassin Vadim Krasikov from a German prison. Meanwhile, as the publication claims, Minaev personally selected Americans for arrest and Russians for exchange.
The scope of CIOD's tasks was not limited to arrests for replenishing the exchange fund; it is also closely integrated into the system of repressions within Russia, including the arrests of hundreds of Russians on charges of espionage and treason, and outside its borders, it engages in recruiting spies, sabotage, and assassinations.
According to Ukrainian officials, CIOD was behind the car bombings in Kyiv in 2017, which targeted employees of the GUR and SBU. This same FSB department was behind the failed assassination attempt on GUR head Kyrylo Budanov, sources told WSJ.
CIOD officers, selected from other FSB units, also organized operations to kidnap people and intimidate Western diplomats, including surveillance of their children. As Eastern European officials told the publication, officers from this department crossed the border into Estonia, detonated a smoke grenade, and transferred an Estonian security service employee across the border to later use him for exchange for a Russian spy detained in Estonia.
CIOD also participated in purges within the Ministry of Defense. This department was tasked with satisfying the «president's appetite for spies and traitors — real or imagined», Gershkovich believes, adding that after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this «appetite» has noticeably increased.
CIOD includes about 2000 officers who have the power to give orders to hundreds of thousands of security forces across the country. According to American and European officials, no CIOD officer has defected to the West — they receive generous (even by FSB standards) salaries and enjoy numerous perks, including low-cost mortgages and vacations at top resorts.
Photo: TASS