{"id":21737,"date":"2010-09-01T06:49:57","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T04:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=21737"},"modified":"2023-04-06T09:47:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T06:47:21","slug":"top-russian-spys-body-washes-up-after-swimming-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/09\/01\/top-russian-spys-body-washes-up-after-swimming-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Russian spy\u2019s body washes up ‘after swimming accident\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The body of one of Russia\u2019s top spies has washed up on the Turkish coast after he disappeared close to a sensitive Russian naval facility in neighbouring Syria.<\/h2>\n

By Andrew Osborn, Moscow<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gen. Yuri Ivanov, 52, deputy head of GRU, the Russian military's overseas intelligence arm of Russian military, was found dead in mysterious circumstances<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Major-General Yuri Ivanov, 52, was the deputy head of <\/strong>Russia\u2019s<\/strong> foreign military intelligence arm known as GRU which is thought to operate the biggest network of foreign spies out of all of Russia\u2019s clandestine intelligence services.<\/strong><\/p>\n

His badly decomposed body was found washed up on the Turkish coast by local fishermen earlier this month after he disappeared in the Syrian coastal resort of Latakia <\/strong>further south. The Russian army\u2019s in-house newspaper, Red Star, did not report his death until last Saturday when he was quietly buried in Moscow.<\/p>\n

The circumstances of his death are reminiscent of a John Le Carre novel and have therefore fuelled theories that he may have been murdered in Syria and his body then thrown into the Mediterranean where it drifted for days.<\/p>\n

According to the Kremlin, he was on holiday in Syria and died in a tragic swimming accident. However, other reports have suggested he was on official business and the location where he is reported to have disappeared was only about fifty miles from a strategically vital Russian naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus<\/strong> which is being expanded and upgraded to service and refuel ships from Russia\u2019s Black Sea Fleet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The facility is Russia\u2019s only foothold in the Mediterranean Sea, and Mossad, Israel\u2019s national intelligence agency, is known to be concerned that Moscow will use the upgraded facility as a base for spy ships and electronic espionage directed at the Middle East. The port is also close to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, a terminal for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline <\/strong>which is seen as a lifeline for Georgia, against whom Russia fought a short war in 2008.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/europe\/russia\/7973346\/Top-Russian-spys-body-washes-up-after-swimming-accident.html, 31 Aug 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The body of one of Russia\u2019s top spies has washed up on the Turkish coast after he disappeared close to a sensitive Russian naval facility in neighbouring Syria. By Andrew Osborn, Moscow Major-General Yuri Ivanov, 52, was the deputy head of Russia\u2019s foreign military intelligence arm known as GRU which is thought to operate the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":21738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,42,56,89],"tags":[3569,3570,3571,905,3572,655,3568],"class_list":["post-21737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","category-russia","category-syria","category-turkey","tag-deputy-head-of-gru","tag-gru","tag-latakia","tag-mossad","tag-tartus","tag-tartus-naval-base","tag-yuri-ivanov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}