Colonel GeneralIgor Valentinovich Korobov (Russian: И́горь Валенти́нович Ко́робов; 3 August 1956 – 21 November 2018) was the Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Russia's military intelligence agency previously known as the GRU.
Korobov served as head of the Strategic Intelligence Directorate (Upravlenie strategicheskoi razvedky).[3][4] He was appointed by president Vladimir Putin to head the military intelligence directorate (GU) following the sudden death of Igor Sergun in January 2016.[5][6]
On 29 December 2016, Korobov was one of the individuals sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury for "malicious cyber-enabled activities" threatening the national security of the United States.[1][7] In May 2017, by a "closed" Decree of the Russian President, Colonel-General Korobov was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation for courage and heroism displayed in the performance of military duty. Nevertheless, he officially visited the U.S., along with other Russia's top security chiefs, at the end of January 2018.[8]
Korobov died on 21 November 2018, "after a long and serious illness", according to sources in the Russian defence ministry cited by official news agencies.[9][10] Korobov's death followed a few months after the badly bungled poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, widely attributed in the West to Korobov's GRU. GRU defector Viktor Suvorov said that while he had no knowledge, "My spy instinct tells me that Korobov was murdered. Everyone sitting inside GRU would understand this, 125%." According to Suvorov, Korobov would have been killed to eliminate a witness who might easily defect.[11]
^Jones, Bruce (4 February 2016). "New Russian military intelligence chief appointed". Jane's Defence Weekly. Archived from the original on 29 December 2016. The appointment comes one month after the sudden death of Lt Gen Korobov's predecessor at the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye), General Igor Dmitrievich Sergun. Prior to the appointment, Lt Gen Korobov was a first deputy director within the organisation, responsible for strategic intelligence. He also acted as caretaker leader after Gen Sergun's death.
^Galeotti, Mark (9 February 2016). "What Putin's Security Appointments Say About How Russia Works". War on the Rocks. Archived from the original on 29 December 2016. From the first, it was clear that all the main stakeholders — Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff Valeri Gerasimov, and the GRU hierarchy itself — favored the promotion of one of Sergun's deputies: Vyacheslav Kondrashev, Sergei Sizunov, Igor Lelin, and Igor Korobov. Of them all, Korobov, head of the Strategic Intelligence Directorate (USR: Upravlenie strategicheskoi razvedky) was clearly the front-runner.
^Sanger, David E. "Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 December 2016. Mr. Obama used that order to immediately impose sanctions on four Russian intelligence officials: Igor Valentinovich Korobov, the current chief of a military intelligence agency, the G.R.U., and three deputies: Sergey Aleksandrovich Gizunov, the deputy chief of the G.R.U.; Igor Olegovich Kostyukov, a first deputy chief, and Vladimir Stepanovich Alekseyev, also a first deputy chief of the G.R.U.
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