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MOSCOW (Reuters) – The head of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU Igor Korobov died Wednesday after "a serious and long-term illness," Russian news agencies reported, citing the Ministry of Defense.
The ministry, called Korobov, 62, who runs the spy agency since 2016, is "a wonderful person, a faithful son of Russia and a patriot of his homeland". He did not give more details about his death.
The West blamed GRU for a series of shameless attacks. Britain accused it of attempting to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury.
The Netherlands believes that the agency has attempted to hack into global surveillance of chemical weapons, and US intelligence agencies said GRU was behind the hacking attempts of the 2016 US presidential elections.
Russia denies all these allegations.
Korobov, as well as other GRU officers, have been sanctioned by the United States for their activities that "undermine cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government".
(Report by Maria Tsvetkova, edited by Cynthia Osterman)
Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters.
