Igor Sergun: A life classified as "secret"

My meeting with Igor Sergun took place in very "exotic" circumstances. It happened a few years ago, in May, a week after the Victory Day parade on Red Square. There was a photo of an old general, who was standing on the guest podium near the Kremlin in military uniform. As it turned out later, she was an adventuress, she had no such rank, and received a pass to the podium by fooling the management of her regional Committee of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War. So, in the photo, next to her, there was a real general, Sergun (his name and title became known to "unenlightened" reporters later). 'Komsomolskaya Pravda', which was one of the first to get the information about the fake general, published a picture with her on its website. The same day, the phone rang on my editorial desk.

- Viktor Nikolaevich, this is Sergun, Igor Dmitrievich. The thing is ... I made a mistake not by my own fault ... You posted a photograph with this troubled lady on your website, which I saw on the podium for the first time ... I'm standing near her. I am ashamed of such "proximity." I am even disgusted by the shadow of this adventuress. It's like I'm smeared with mud. Please, if you cannot remove the picture from the website, at least don't specify my name and my post. I will be ashamed to look people in the eyes!"

As it turned out later, she was an adventuress, she had no such rank, and received a pass to the podium by fooling the management of her regional Committee of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War. 

We fulfilled his request. However, only half of it. Because the picture already started to stroll around the vast expanses of the Internet (we had not specified the name, rank and title of the director of GRU). But the face of the charlatan was seen by all the viewers. And the general, who was standing next to her, remained in shadow (besides, there were other senior officers at the picture). Then I had to repeatedly meet with Igor Dmitrievich, and each time he recalled this case with a smile, when "he suddenly appeared" in 'Komsomolskaya Pravda'.

"Now you can't take a photo of me even with a telegraph pole!" he joked.

I remember how we once met with him in the waiting room of the Minister of Defence. He pulled out a pile of newspapers from a swollen folder and started to review them quickly. I glanced at him, and became tense when he picked up 'Komsomolskaya Pravda'. It was evident that the attention of Sergun had "stuck" to some material. Then he looked up from this text and said to me with a good-natured smile:

"You write here, that this American general is heading a department in the Defense Intelligence Agency of the US (DIA). And he has been serving as a deputy head of the DIA for month and a half already. Thoroughly, you have to work more thoroughly!"

The secret service agent in him did not sleep, even when he was a reader of a newspaper.

When I wrote a book about the return of Crimea to Russia and little-known aspects of the operation of "polite people" on the peninsula in February and March 2014, the Russian Defense Minister, Army General Sergey Shoigu, told me:

"Be sure to give the manuscript to Sergun, Igor Dmitrievich knows a lot of such subtleties that will not let you make a mistake in the description of the hidden sides of 'the Crimean Spring'."

That's exactly what I did.

Three weeks later, Igor Dmitrievich invited me to his "literary talk" (his words). The thick "loaf" of my manuscript was laid on the table in front of him. I expected that the director of the GRU was about to begin to thumb through pages and point out mistakes. But he did not even touch the folder. For almost an hour he narrated episodes of my book with such detail, as if he had written it himself. I saw the phenomenal professional memory of a secret service agent. I understood the subtle points of his wise advice. My book has an episode about an ingenious combination of the GRU, which helped to save perhaps hundreds of lives of our soldiers in Crimea during the peak moment of the 'Crimean Spring'. I admiringly described the essence of this brilliant operation, which was conceived and carried out under the supervision of Sergun. And he shocked me:

- And here, there is no need to tell about me and my men. While all of this is exactly how it happened. You have not lied. But we will not show our opponents our 'tools', which are sure to be useful in the future...

Both the defense minister and the chief of staff have repeatedly given the highest appraisal of the professionalism of the director of the GRU – professionalism of the highest standard. And General Sergun asked me: "I'm grateful to my superiors for such an assessment of my work, but my post and my job do not like "the light"...

He served and lived outside of "the light." According to the laws of intelligence. And an officer's conscience.

You will not find an "expanded" biography of Colonel-General Sergun, or any interesting information about his work in various posts. His service to the homeland was tightly closed, classified as "secret." And only minor official information about his biography was posted on the website of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

Born March 28th 1957. In the Armed Forces from 1973. He graduated from the Moscow Suvorov Military School, the Moscow Higher Military Command School named after the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, the Military Academy of the Soviet Army, and  the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Served in military intelligence from 1984. Performed military service in various posts in the Main Intelligence Directorate. Speaks several foreign languages. He was awarded the state awards Order 'For Merit to the Fatherland' of the 4th degree, Order 'For Military Merit', Order of Honour, and a large number of medals.

What else is known? In 1998 he served in the rank of colonel as the Russian military attaché in Albania. By Presidential Decree, in December of 2011 he was appointed as the director of the Main Intelligence Directorate – the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Candidate of Military Sciences.

Passed away on January 3rd 2016 at the age of 59.

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