Investigation says that mysterious Havana Syndrome was the creation of Russian secret Unit 29155

The mysterious symptoms of the so-called Havana Syndrome experienced by US diplomats in recent years were linked to a Russian secret service unit, according to a joint press investigation released this Monday.

Havana Syndrome was first reported in 2016, when United States diplomats in Cuba’s capital said they fell ill and heard piercing sounds during the night, sparking speculation of an attack by a foreign entity using an unspecified sonar weapon. .

Other symptoms, including a bloody nose, headaches and vision problems, were later reported by embassy officials in China, Europe and the US capital, Washington.

The diplomats may have been targeted by Russian sonic weaponry, according to joint reporting by The Insider, Der Spiegel and CBS’s 60 Minutes.

The year-long investigation “uncovered evidence suggesting that unexplained anomalous health incidents, also known as Havana Syndrome, may have their origins in the use of directed energy weapons by members of Unit 29155 (of the Russian GRU),” said the report.

Russia’s 29155 unit is responsible for foreign operations and has been blamed for several international incidents, including the attempted poisoning of defector Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom in 2018.

However, Moscow rejected the accusations, considering them “unfounded”. “This issue has been talked about in the press for many years. And from the beginning, most of the time, it is linked to Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference. “But no one has ever published any convincing evidence, so all of this is nothing more than a baseless and baseless accusation,” he added.

Washington closed its immigration office in Havana in 2018, as part of a US policy shift towards Cuba and also in response to fears at the time that Havana Syndrome “was the result of a microwave or other electronic attack “.

US intelligence also said in 2022 that intense energy directed from an external source could have caused some cases of Havana Syndrome, officially known as anomalous health incidents (IAH).

However, the secret concluded in March 2023 that “there is no credible evidence that a foreign adversary has a weapon or collection device that is causing AHI”.

Washington announced the reopening of its immigration office in Havana in August 2023.

The joint investigation suggests that the first cases of Havana Syndrome may have occurred in Germany two years before the cases reported in Havana in 2016, which gave the syndrome its name.

“There were likely attacks two years earlier in Frankfurt, Germany, when a US government employee stationed at the local consulate was knocked out by something resembling a strong energy beam,” the report indicates.

The New Yorker reported in July 2021 that about two dozen intelligence officers, diplomats and other U.S. government employees in Austria have reported problems similar to Havana Syndrome since President Joe Biden took office the same year.

The United States deployed medical and scientific experts to study the alleged attacks, and those affected were extensively examined to try to understand their plight.