While visiting the Bauman Moscow State Technical University last year to boast about future space projects heading to the Moon and Mars, a much less visible and much more sensitive structure for the West discreetly operated within the campus.
This is the so-called “Department 4” or “Special Training”a secret faculty that, according to an international investigation led by The Guardian along with five other European media, would be training future members of the GRU, Russian military intelligence linked to hacking, sabotage and disinformation operations in Europe and the United States.
The research is based in more than 2,000 leaked internal university documents, including academic records, contracts, evaluations and training programs that show how some students move directly from classrooms to units responsible for some of the most aggressive cyber operations attributed to Moscow in the last decade.
Among them are groups such as (Unit 26165) or Sandworm (Unit 74455).targeted by Western governments for interfering in US and European elections, attacking critical Ukrainian infrastructure and participating in sabotage and disinformation campaigns.
Hacking, propaganda and psychological manipulation
The documents describe an academic program that goes far beyond conventional engineering. According to the research, students receive specific training in:
- software vulnerabilities
- disinformation campaigns
- and psychological manipulation in social networks.
One module even requires students to develop their own computer viruses as part of the assessment.
Slides used in some classes show spy devices camouflaged as smoke detectors, cables capable of capturing computer screens, or systems to record keystrokes without being detected.
Additionally, part of the program includes seminars on how to build propaganda campaigns using “pressure”, “manipulation” and “hidden propaganda”, saccording to the documents analyzed by the consortium of journalists.
The investigation also points to a direct involvement of the GRU in the selection and supervision of students. Intelligence officers would participate in exams, evaluations and final assignments.
From the classroom to operations against the West
One of the names mentioned in the leak is that of General Viktor Netyksho, identified by as the former head of Fancy Bearthe group accused of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.
The documents also show how several graduates of the program ended up assigned directly to units linked to international cyberattack operations.
One of them was sent to Unit 74455known in the West as Sandworm, accused of some of the most destructive attacks attributed to Russia:
Sabotage against Ukraine’s electrical grid, attacks against Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign in 2017, operations during the Winter Olympics in South Korea, or activities related to the Salisbury poisoning case in the United Kingdom.
According to experts cited by the investigation, the program reflects the extent to which Russia has institutionalized the so-called “hybrid war”combining espionage, cyberattacks and disinformation as a central part of its international strategy.
And all this, also, from one of the most prestigious and oldest technical universities in the country.
and those responsible mentioned in the investigation did not respond to requests for comment sent by the journalistic consortium before the publication of the documents.
