‘New evidence for involvement of Russia’s secret service in Havana syndrome’

The complaints occurred among more than a hundred people: American officials and family members. It was never clear where exactly the cause lay.

The mysterious syndrome first emerged in 2016 in Havana. Employees of the American embassy and their family members experienced complaints such as dizziness, headache, migraine, nausea, memory loss and hearing loss. Some victims have suffered permanent health damage, such as blindness, memory loss and problems with balance and orientation.

GRO Unit 29155

Later, the phenomenon was also observed in other places, such as Georgia, China and the US itself. It is suspected that the complaints were caused by attacks with sound waves, because the victims often heard strange sounds.

The new research was conducted by the Russian news site The Insider, CBS News and the German weekly Der Spiegel. They make a link with later reports of the syndrome in the Georgian capital Tblisi. There, a unit of the Russian secret service GRU, unit 29155 to be precise, is said to have tested an ‘acoustic energy weapon’.

In the CBS program 60 Minutes, American Lieutenant Colonel Greg Edgreen, who was involved in the Pentagon investigation (the US Department of Defense), says he is convinced that Russia is behind the attacks. Its purpose is said to be to sabotage American diplomats worldwide.

“If my mother had seen what I saw, she would say: it’s the Russians, stupid“, Edgreen tells 60 Minutes.

Microwave weapon

A diplomat tells CBS that he was bombarded with a noise that sounded like “a kind of rolling marble in a metal funnel.” The sound was ‘quite loud’ and was said to have been caused by a microwave weapon.

In America itself, government officials also complained about strange noises, especially in the government center of Washington DC. This would involve incidents in government buildings, but also in private homes. A witness tells CBS he saw “a white van” speeding away from his home when he went to investigate.

Now, Russian independent The Insider journalist Christo Grozev, who in 2020 exposed the spies who poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, says he has found documents showing that the GRU unit in question is involved in the attacks with a ‘non- lethal acoustic energy weapon’.

Agents from this secret unit are said to have been in the area when several victims became unwell. This would appear from telephone and email data. He also says he has evidence that leaders of the Kremlin unit received awards for the attacks.