Report suggests Russian involvement in mysterious illness of US officials

A mysterious illness that has affected American diplomats in recent years has been linked to a Russian intelligence unit. Employees stationed around the world and diagnosed with so-called “Havana syndrome” have reported unexplained symptoms such as dizziness. Moscow denied the accusations.

They may have been targeted by Russian sonic weaponry, according to a joint US investigation. The Insider, Der Spiegel and television news 60 Minutesfrom the CBS.

American officials previously said it was unlikely that a foreign power was to blame for the disease, but in an assessment of “anomalous health incidents” that was delivered last year they offered no alternative explanation.

The phenomenon is named after Cuba’s capital Havana – where the first case was detected in 2016 – although the new report suggests the first cases may have occurred in Germany two years earlier. Other cases have been reported around the world, from Washington to China.

More than 1,000 reports of the mysterious illness have been made, with dozens of cases still considered officially unexplained. US lawmakers have already passed legislation aimed at supporting victims. American officials stricken by the disease – including some appointed by the White House, CIA and FBI – have complained of dizziness, headaches, difficulty concentrating and an intense, painful sound in their ears.

microwave weapon

There has long been a suspicion that those affected were struck by directed energy or microwaves fired from hidden devices – a possibility that was acknowledged in a previous US intelligence report.

The new media investigation alleges that members of a specific Russian military intelligence unit – known as 29155 – may have targeted the brains of US diplomats with “directed energy” weapons.

The journalistic investigation says there is evidence that members of the unit were in cities around the world at times when US personnel reported incidents. The secret unit carries out operations abroad and has been linked to incidents including the 2018 attempted poisoning in the United Kingdom of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy.

In response to the media investigation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “no one has ever published or expressed any convincing evidence of these baseless accusations anywhere. So these are all baseless accusations.”

One victim of the syndrome – an FBI agent – ​​told 60 Minutes about her experience of being hit by a powerful force in her Florida home in 2021. “Bam, inside my right ear, it was like a dentist drilling,” she told the show. “That feeling when it gets too close to the eardrum? It’s like this, times 10.” The woman – known as Carrie – said she ended up fainting and later had problems with memory and concentration.

Although American officials have repeated to CBS Newsthat it is very unlikely that a foreign adversary is responsible, John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said the new allegations are “very concerning.”

“I don’t think the government, frankly, when I was there, took this seriously enough,” he told CNN. “I don’t think they’ve taken it seriously enough since then.” But Republican Senator J.D. Vance, one of Trump’s top allies, dismissed the report, writing in X: “It seems that many journalists have lost their minds.”