Google Translate logs expose Russian plot against relatives of Chechen opposition leader Zakaev
The Insider has reported that a Russian operative who was arrested in Colombia and accused by the US of conspiring to kidnap or murder Russian dissidents had intended to target relatives of exiled Chechen politician Akhmed Zakaev. According to the investigation, their plans were uncovered through Google Translate logs.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, Denis Alimov, a 42 year-old former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), was arrested in Bogota on 24 February under an Interpol red notice.
Prosecutors in New York have stated that he participated in a plot to ‘to kidnap or murder two foreign dissidents’, offering a co-conspirator Darco Durovic $60,000 in advance and $1.5 million for each target.
According to the investigators, Alimov served as coordinator for Durovic. The investigation claims that after meeting in Moscow, Alimov and Durovic kept in touch and discussed the location of the targets, possible weapons needed for their operation, and the logistics of traveling through Europe. The case file says that Durovic also recruited a third co-conspirator to participate in the plot, and discussed the need to finance a special ‘hunting team’ to find the targets. The press release has not identified the intended victims.
However, a recent investigation of The Insider with Der Spiegel identified their targets as the family members of Akhmed Zakaev, a Chechen political figure living in the UK who is currently serving as the Prime Minister of Ichkheria in exile.
The government of Ichkheria in exile positions itself as the successor state to Ichkheria, a short-lived Chechen state that emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was crushed by Russian forces across two major wars.
The publication claims that Alimov was a member of an ‘elite hit squad’ known as ‘Centre 795’, established by order of the Russian General Staff in December 2022 and was fully staffed by June 2023.
The publication claims that it was the communication errors that helped the investigators to uncover the alleged conspiracy. Alimov, who speaks Russian, had communicated with Durovic in Serbo-Croatian through Google Translate. Investigators in the US gained access to translation logs and read the content of the correspondence in real-time, despite their use of encrypted messengers.
‘Center 795’ also identifies itself as military unit 75127 and reports directly to Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov rather than through a more indirect chain of command.
The publication described the unit as a ‘full-cycle’ structure combining surveillance, intelligence gathering, sabotage, and targeted killings. It says the group was also established to avoid the operational failures of Unit 29155, which orchestrated the failed assassination of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, in Salisbury, UK.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
