GRU Chief Igor Korobov Dies

The Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces (GRU), Colonel General Igor Korobov, has died. This was reported by Interfax, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

Korobov was 62 years old. The cause of death was given as "a severe and prolonged illness."

Update . Igor Kostyukov has been appointed acting head of the GRU, RBC reports , citing sources in the Defense Ministry. Until recently, Kostyukov was Korobov's first deputy.

• Igor Korobov served in the Armed Forces since 1973. In 1985, he joined military intelligence, and in 2016 he was appointed head of the GRU.
• Korobov took over the agency after the death of its previous chief, Igor Sergun. According to the official version, Sergun died at his home in the Moscow region of a heart attack on January 3, 2016; according to the American intelligence and analytical company Stratfor, his death occurred on a different day and in Lebanon.
• In 2018, the GRU found itself at the centre of a number of scandals, the most high-profile of which was the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK. British authorities blamed alleged GRU officers Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov .