As of: April 1, 2024, 2:29 p.m
By: Natascha Berger
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Russian secret agents are said to have attacked more than 100 US diplomats with microwave weapons under President Putin. Moscow has not yet commented on this. © IMAGO/Sergei Bobylev
The mysterious “Havana syndrome” plagues US diplomats. Research now suggests that Russian secret service agents are behind the disease. They are supposed to attack specifically with microwave weapons.
Berlin - For several years, US diplomats have been complaining about similar symptoms: sudden headaches, hearing loss and pain in the ears as well as dizziness and nausea. Other CIA employees report vision problems and cognitive impairments. In December 2016, the pain attacks first became known as “Havana syndrome”. Investigative research by
Spiegel
, the US television magazine
60 Minutes
and the Russian internet magazine
The Insider
now suggests that the syndrome can be traced back to attacks by Russian secret services.
First case of “Havana Syndrome” in 2014: US diplomats collapsed from pain in Frankfurt
Investigations by the US State Department in 2023 revealed that the diplomats' illnesses were not caused by “foreign opponents”. However, during five years of research by the three media, a different picture emerged. In order to find out more about the mysterious “Havana Syndrome”, the international team of reporters interviewed those affected and experts and also followed traces of Russian agents. The team evaluated hotel bookings and telephone data as well as internal emails and documents. The research revealed: The first cases of the “Havana symptom” did not occur in Havana, Cuba, in 2016, but in Germany. And that was back in 2014.
Russian agents are said to be responsible for “Havana Syndrome” through attacks with microwave weapons
Two years before the first reports about the syndrome, “several US government officials were attacked” in the US consulate in Frankfurt am Main. The pain was so bad that some of the victims collapsed unconscious. This is what a diplomat who was stationed in Frankfurt for the USA said at the time. Incidents followed in Austria's capital Vienna, Berlin and other cities. The research suggests that there was a close connection to Russia's secret service GRU in all of the attacks. Hotel bookings are said to show that Russian agents often traveled to exactly the same places where diplomats from the USA later complained of sudden attacks of pain.
According to Spiegel
, the possible perpetrators identified in the research are said
to work in one of the GRU's "most notorious sabotage and killer units": Unit 29155. It is the same unit that was responsible for the 2018 nerve agent attack on the former GRU agent and British informant Sergei Skripal was held responsible. Russia's military intelligence agency GRU has been researching acoustic and electromagnetic weapons, also known as microwave weapons, for years. Such weapons work with high-frequency radiation and are not lethal. According to experts, symptoms like those of the “Havana Syndrome” victims are quite conceivable when microwave weapons are used.
US diplomats “neutralized” with Russian microwave weapons?
Greg Edgreen, a retired U.S. military lieutenant colonel, led a task force studying “Havana syndrome” for two years. In the program
60 Minutes
, which was also part of the research, he explains: There was “always a connection to Russia” among the diplomats affected. The pain attacks did not affect the worst or middle officers, but always the “best 5 to 10 percent”. They worked against Russia or focused on the country under Putin and did a very good job.
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In total, around 1,500 people reported to the authorities who could potentially be affected by their symptoms. However, according to US government circles, only 150 cases can actually be traced back to “Havana syndrome”. The impact of the attacks is being felt, Edgreen said: “Our diplomats working abroad are being removed from their posts with traumatic brain injuries. They will be neutralized.”
The US government now wants to further investigate “Havana Syndrome”.
According to the new research, the White House now wants to treat the “Havana Syndrome”, its effects and possible causes, as a priority. Those affected should also be treated with “respect and compassion”. This decision comes too late for victims who have their say in the research. After all, the US government could have started more thorough investigations as early as 2014. Most recently, the US government said that the “Havana syndrome” was not due to foreign attacks, for example from Russia, but rather to the diplomats' previous illnesses.
(nbe)