A SENIOR Russian operative has been detained by the FBI after an astonishing blunder, exposing the Kremlin’s secret assassination unit.
The officer is believed to be part of Centre 795 – a covert organisation created to carry out some of Vladimir Putin‘s most sensitive missions overseas.
The unit’s tasks range from battlefield operations in Ukraine to abductions, sabotage campaigns and targeted political killings.
Centre 795 was created in the early months of the Ukraine war as the shadowy new arm of the Russian security services.
It quietly brought together officers from the military intelligence agency, the GRU, and the domestic security service, the Federal Security Service.
The Kremlin turned to the new structure after concluding that the infamous GRU Unit 29155 – widely linked to the Salisbury poison attack – had become too well-known to be allowed to continue.
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The new unit reportedly answers directly to Russia’s Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, one of Putin’s most powerful war commanders.
Designed to be “untraceable”, it was meant to operate far from public view.
However, the organisation has now been dragged into the open because of a simple mistake.
Investigators at The Insider say one of its operatives used Google Translate while communicating with a suspected contract killer.
The man under investigation is Denis Alimov, 42, a decorated former member of the elite Alfa special forces unit within the FSB.
Posing as a tourist heading for a beach holiday, Alimov was detained the moment he landed at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá.
Prosecutors say he was involved in planning attacks against two prominent Chechen dissidents living in Europe.
According to investigators, the operative offered more than £1 million for each target if they could be delivered to Russia – dead or alive.
Having tracked Alimov for more than a year, the FBI investigation took a shocking turn when he tried to communicate with the alleged hitman.
The two men thought their conversations were secure because they were using encrypted messaging services.
However, they resorted to Google Translate to act as their interpreter.
Unbeknown to them, every Russian-Serbian translation request was routed through Google’s servers in the US.
After obtaining a court order, investigators could allegedly read the exchanges in full.
In one message, the suspected assassin wrote: “I believe we will find him soon, he can’t be moving around all the time. He’ll relax and fall into the trap at some point.”
Later, referring to Alimov himself, he added: “He’s very well connected… one of the closest men to an important government official.”
Alimov is now reportedly being held in Colombia pending extradition to the US
The fallout could be severe for Moscow.
Investigators claim the case has exposed the names, structure, sponsors and even the operational base of Centre 795.
What was intended to be Russia’s most discreet assassination apparatus may now be compromised – perhaps beyond repair.
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