Denis Sergejew

Denis Sergejew, in Europe alias Sergej Fedotov (born 1973 in Kazakhstan) is a Russian officer of military intelligence service GRU. He is suspected to be the local coordinator of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal 2018 in the UK and the poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrew 2015 in Bulgaria.

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Denis Sergejew is a member of Russian military intelligent service GRU. Bellincat wrote about his rank, that it "was at no lower than colonel, and possibly Lt. General or Major General."

Sergejew was born in 1973 in a military settlement in the Sowjet-Republic Kazakhstan and did his military service in the southern Russian port of Novorossiisk. Later he visited the Russian Diplomatic Military Academy in Moscow, also known as the "GRU Conservatory", where military intelligence trains its cadres.

Involvement in GRU operations in Europe
Sergejew was involved in the establishment of a total of eight companies between 2004 and 2012, were opened and later liquidated. He ws shareholder or managing director; at times other suspected GRU officers were involved in the companies. The purpose of these companies, whose names imitate larger Russian companies, is unclear. NZZ speculated, that may have been used to launder money or as a fictitious employer to GRU employees. Sergeyev got a personal bank loan of about one million USD, about whose use nothing is known.

Bellingcat reported in 2019 on a possible involvement in a poison attack on the Bulgarian arms manufacturer Emilian Gebrew in the spring of 2015. Bulgarian Prosecutor General's Office has confirmed the presence of Sergeyev during the period of the attack.

Sergejew is said to had a senior position to the executing GRU-agents Chepiga and Mishkin in the Skripal poisoning operation. He was likely in charge of coordinating the operation in Salisbury.

The two main suspects identified in the case of Skripal Alexander Mischkin and Anatoli Tschepiga have a similar background like Sergejew: they all come from the far east provinces and after military service, they started a career in the GRU.

It is known that Sergeyev was exactly during the Brexit vote in London and during the Catalan independence referendum in Barcelona. Both can have been pure coincidences.

Weblinks

 * Companies of Sergejew, NZZ 2/2019