A Russian FSB officer accused by Ukraine of trying to assassinate Kyrylo Budanov is attending peace talks in Abu Dhabi. His alleged target is there, too — as part of Ukraine’s delegation.
The Russian delegation at the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi has five members and six experts. Four of them are taking part in these talks for the first time, the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo said.
One of the experts on the Russian delegation is Dmitry Minaev, head of the Counterintelligence Operations Department (DKRO) of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). According to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal in Western intelligence agencies, DKRO officers carry out sabotage operations in Ukraine. Ukrainian sources cited by the newspaper said Minaev and his department were behind a failed assassination attempt on Kyrylo Budanov, the former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry (it is unknown when the attempt took place). Budanov now serves as Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff and is part of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks in Abu Dhabi.
DKRO has also taken part in detaining several U.S. citizens in Russia who were later charged with espionage. Among them was The Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich. He was released as part of a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries that took place on August 1, 2024. Gershkovich has said Minaev was one of those who accompanied the prisoners Russia was to hand over as part of the exchange. Here is how he described him:
Wearing a sand-colored jacket and brown shoes, with a salt-and-pepper goatee, the man had spent the past few hours organizing the final preparations for the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War. Now, as the pilots started the engines to take off for an airport in Turkey’s capital, he came out to look at the 16 prisoners he was escorting to freedom, a haul of Americans, Russians and Germans in their first hours fresh from jails and penal colonies. Scanning the passengers, he locked his eyes squarely on one of those prisoners—me. He said nothing, staring in silence for nearly a minute. Then he turned and walked back to his curtained-off section of the presidential jet.
Who else is part of the core Russian delegation:
- presidential aide and head of the Russian Military Historical Society Vladimir Medinsky;
- Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin;
- Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov;
- head of the FSB’s Service for Operational Information and International Relations Alexei Komkov;
- head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces Igor Kostyukov;
And the experts:
- deputy head of the General Staff’s Main Operational Directorate Yuri Zhigarlovsky;
- first deputy head of the General Staff’s Information Directorate Alexander Zorin;
- deputy head of the presidential directorate for state policy in the humanitarian sphere Yelena Podobreyevskaya;
- director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second CIS Department Alexei Polishchuk;
- director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Oleg Postnikov.
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