Putin to appoint a new chief of military intelligence
Russian President Vladimir Putin will appoint a new Chief of Military Intelligence instead of the recently deceased Igor Korobov.
According to several Russian media outlets, the successor will become Vice-Admiral Igor Kostyukov, who after the death of Korobov, served as the head of the main intelligence directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
As reported by the newspaper Kommersant, Kostyukov was born on February 21, 1961, in the Amur region of Russia. He received a naval education. Later he graduated from the Military-Diplomatic Academy.
After graduating from the academy, he served as a military attaché, then in the GRU (Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation). As one of the military intelligence leaders, he was directly involved in the management of the operation in Syria.
In December 2016 and later in September 2018 Kostyukov was added to the US sanctions list, in connection with subverting democracy in the USA while tampering with US elections in 2016.
Under Korobov, the GRU, conducted several high-profile operations, and its leaders and employees came under sanctions or were at the center of scandals.
Among them were mass cyber-attacks, including against Ukraine, and the failed poisoning of former Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
In December 2016, Korobov, like Kostyukov, came under US sanctions for intervening in the US presidential election.