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Secret GRU-linked department at top Russian university trains hackers and saboteurs, investigation finds

Source: The Insider

A secret department at the military training center of Bauman Moscow State Technical University is training hackers and saboteurs for the GRU, a joint investigation by The Insider, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Frontstory, and VSquare has found. The journalists reviewed more than two thousand internal documents from the department, including curricula, contracts, promotional materials, and lists of students, graduates, and faculty. The investigation describes how promising students are groomed for careers in the GRU — an organization known for hacking Western government systems, poisoning opposition figures abroad, and interfering in elections across Europe and the United States. Meduza summarizes the key findings.

Note: This article contains explicit language.

  • Department No. 4 of Bauman University’s military training center trains students under the supervision of GRU officers. The department does not appear on the university’s website in the section describing the training center’s structure — the listing jumps directly from Department No. 3 to Department No. 5.
  • One of Department No. 4‘s courses, titled “Countering Technical Intelligence,” covers the full toolkit of modern hackers. In practical sessions, students conduct penetration tests using a computer virus; for their final grade, they must develop one themselves.
  • The department also teaches what one of its lectures calls “propaganda, agitation, manipulation, and persuasion,” assigning students to produce a “social video on any topic of interest” that employs “manipulation,” “pressure,” and “covert propaganda.” Students are also taught the workings of the CIA, FBI, and the U.S. National Security Agency, and write term papers on the Pentagon’s secure computer networks.
  • Another part of the curriculum covers modern military technology. Students study the combat experience of Russian special operations forces units in the Kursk Region during the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ incursion, as well as the design of various Western drones — American, British, and German models among them.
  • The department’s deputy head, Lieutenant Colonel Kirill Stupakov, teaches a special course on espionage technology covering wiretapping and surveillance methods. He tells students that the SVO was “inevitable” because Ukraine was governed by “nationalists and neo-Nazis” — but in private correspondence, the investigative outlet The Insider found, Stupakov refers to Dmitry Medvedev as “Dimon,” to Putin as “the old geezer,” and to Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov as “a fucking drunk.”
  • Between 10 and 15 students from the department are assigned to GRU units each year. Some graduates serve in military unit 74455, which belongs to the hacking group Sandworm, responsible in recent years for several of the largest cyberattacks. Graduates are also assigned to Fancy Bear, an equally notorious hacking group linked to numerous major cyberattacks.
  • In April 2025, Vladimir Putin visited Bauman University, meeting with students, touring a new building, and viewing an exhibition of the university’s developments that included a new drone. He made no mention of Department No. 4.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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