Officials within the U.S. intelligence community believe Russian intelligence operatives offered to pay Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces, including U.S. troops, during peace talks to end the nearly two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan.
Officials told the New York Times that Unit 29155, part of the Russian military intelligence agency widely known as GRU, has been deemed responsible for the bounties. The unit is linked to the March 2018 nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury, England, of Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Skripal was a GRU officer who had worked for British intelligence forces and then defected. In 2016, the unit was linked to an attempted coup in Montenegro.
The officials, who spoke with the outlet on the condition of anonymity, said the intelligence on bounties offered by the GRU is fairly conclusive, based partly on interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals, but it is unknown how high in the Russian government knowledge of the situation or approval of it went.
Twenty-four U.S. service members have been killed in combat in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2019. It remains unclear which of those killings may be under suspicion of having a financial incentive. The United States and the Taliban struck a peace agreement in February, and the Taliban has not attacked any U.S. positions since that time.
Officials said President Trump was briefed on the topic in late March and given a range of response options. They claimed he has not yet authorized any specific response.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had not been made aware of the accusations. “If someone makes them, we’ll respond,” he said.
Spokespeople at the National Security Council, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the CIA declined to comment to the New York Times. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Pentagon declined to comment on the matter to the Washington Examiner.
