Commonalities Amongst Members of the Russian GRU

Authors: Albin Touma & Kim Schouwenaar

Introduction

This article follows a leak of private data on Russian Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravlenie (GRU) employees by analysts working with Molfar, an organisation similar to OFU, based on information they had obtained through their network of informants. This leak consists of personal data, such as full names, dates of birth, passport data, home addresses, and cars registered to each person. In total, the data comprises private information of 900 employees, who reside in different regions, have different occupations, and come from different social classes. Based on the leaked data, Albin Touma built a profile of the average GRU employee, examining and drawing conclusions from commonalities concerning name, age, and type of car owned. This article draws on the findings in Touma’s work and the data leaked by Molfar.

Russian GRU

The Russian GRU is the Russian Federation’s—hereafter referred to as Russia—main intelligence directorate. Their employees provide Russia with military intelligence reports used for domestic and international purposes. Although very little concrete information is available publicly on the agency, the Russian ministry states that the GRU is responsible for “ensuring conditions conducive to the successful implementation of the Russian Federation's defence and security policy”. Moreover, it seems to be pivotal in terms of providing the intelligence necessary for making political and economic decisions (see this BBC article from 2021). The United States (US) Department of Justice accused the GRU of interfering with the presidential election in 2024 and confirmed it interfered with the election in 2016 by means of cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns aimed at persons with political affiliations operating and citizens residing in the US. Thus, while the agency’s primary focus is gathering military intelligence, it also operates in political and technological environments. 

Personal Data

Compiling a list of all leaked names and ages, Touma identified the most common first and last names of GRU employees and the age groups they belong to. The most common first name is Kuznetsov, while the second and third most common are Smirnov and Marchenko, respectively. This is remarkable, as all three are common last names in Russia but not common first names (see each name respectively on https://forebears.io/). The most common first name amongst GRU employees is the fourth most common last name in Russia, and 1 in every 330 Russian inhabitants bear it. The majority of employees have Alexandrovich as a last name, while Vladimirovich is the second most common last name and Sergeevich the third most common. 

The average age of GRU employees is 38 years old, and most employees are between 30 and 50 years old. Scarcely any employee is younger than 20 years or older than 50 years, while Molfar shockingly detected two minors within the organisation. Davydovskaya Sofya Andreevna and Soldatov Ivan Alekseevich were both born in early 2009, which makes them only 16 years old at the time of writing. Unfortunately, the information known about these two minors is restricted to their name and birthday.

Type of car

The type of car that GRU employees drive was also part of the data Molfar’s associates leaked. Although they could not identify owned cars for every employee, they know enough to draw conclusions on some commonalities. The most common brand among employees is KIA; approximately 10% of cars identified through the leak was a model of this brand. Other brands include Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. Altogether, Molfar detected a total of 44 car brands among the data, while none of the brands produced any luxury sports cars. This factor may be due to the average salary of a Russian citizen, regardless of whether they are active in the military or government or not. Although regional bonuses have increased in some areas, the average monthly salary is RUB70,000, which is approximately €787 at the time of writing (see bne IntelliNews). Nevertheless, Al Jazeera reported in 2022 that Russia was recruiting new soldiers with the promise of a minimum wage of RUB160,000, which is at the time of writing approximately €1,800 and thus at least double the average wage. Also noteworthy is the fact that there is only one Russian brand in the 10 most frequently bought brands, while most employees prefer an imported car. In contrast to this, a Russian-produced car brand, namely LADA, seems to be the most favoured brand among Russian citizens (see this blog). 

Military Unit

Finally, Touma addressed which military unit was most frequently found in the leak, which is military unit 40273. Not much is known about this unit, though according to RuPEP, it was founded on May 15, 2017 and is located in Khoroshevskoye. Moreover, the unit is concerned with space intelligence. However, the data leak is missing information on most employees’ place of employment. Thus, we cannot draw a well-informed conclusion on whether this really is the most frequent place of employment among GRU employees in this data leak. 

Conclusion

The Molfar leak provided valuable information on private data of GRU employees across Russia and helped OSINTers such as Albin Touma and analysts at Molfar build a generalised profile of persons working within the Russian GRU. We can now start comparing the intelligence gathered from this leak with other leaks and pre-existing knowledge on employees within the Russian GRU and other parties associated with the Russian political and military environments. For example, the type of car most frequently found in this leak may help provide more insight into the monetary value of GRU employees and why they drive these cars rather than more expensive and luxurious cars.