Translated material
Term for connections with the GRU
Reserve captain sentenced in Azerbaijan
Former officer of the National Army of Azerbaijan Pyotr Vladimirovich Modzhalov , accused of collaborating with Russian intelligence, was sentenced yesterday “for treason to the Motherland” to 12 years in prison. The trial was held behind closed doors, and journalists were not allowed into the courtroom. The country's Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Homeland Security vetoed the dissemination of information about this case. The Vremya Novostey correspondent only managed to find out that reserve captain Pyotr Modzhalov was born in 1961 in Baku. In 1979 he graduated from a vocational school, served in the army, and in 1986 he entered one of the military schools in St. Petersburg. At home, in February 1992, he was hired by the Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. In the same year, the capable lieutenant became assistant chief of staff of one of the military units in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic.Shortly before retiring with the rank of captain in 1998, during a business trip to Baku, he was recruited by Valery Lastovsky, an employee of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense, who worked at the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan. Modzhalov was assigned an agent pseudonym - “Igor”. (According to VN, 50-year-old Colonel Valery Lastovsky subsequently allegedly served as a military attaché at the Russian Embassy in Georgia and died in a car accident in Tbilisi in October 2003. - Ed. )
The investigation claims that from 1997 to 2002, Modzhalov, having already retired and using old connections in the Ministry of Defense, on instructions from the Russian resident, collected secret data on the deployment of troops in the regions, the number of units, the number of weapons, the nature of the weapons, and new military supplies. He even informed about the staffing table and vacancies. The fee for each information was 300-400 dollars, which in Azerbaijan is a good increase in a retiree’s pension.
He came to the attention of counterintelligence in early 2006. Listening to the reserve captain's telephone conversations and his meetings left no doubt about the reasons for his curiosity. In October he was arrested, and during the investigation he admitted to collaborating with the GRU.