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Russia mistakenly doxed its own spies and secret bases by uploading their addresses on a public city hall website: investigative outlet

Matthew Loh   

Russia mistakenly doxed its own spies and secret bases by uploading their addresses on a public city hall website: investigative outlet
  • Russia accidentally exposed the locations of its secret bases and spy homes, per the Dossier Center.
  • It included them in a long list of buildings that are supposed to always have power, per the outlet.

Moscow's city hall accidentally leaked the addresses of government safehouses, undercover facilities, and the homes of state operatives, the Dossier Center reported on Monday.

A 434-page list containing the addresses was uploaded on the city hall website. It appeared to be a guide for local electricity suppliers, wrote the investigative outlet, which was founded by the Russian opposition politician and activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The document, titled "Special Group," earmarked specific buildings that authorities wanted to stay connected to in the event of blackouts or power shortages, reported the Dossier Center.

When Insider checked the Moscow city hall website on Monday, the document was no longer available online.

Several officials signed the document, including Moscow's mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, the Dossier Center reported.

While most of the list covered the addresses of public institutions like metro stations, police headquarters, and hospitals, it also pinpointed secret locations like an ammunition depot in Leningrad and undercover facilities run by the Federal Protective Service, according to the Dossier Center.

In one case, the document even included the apartment numbers of two homes used by spies in Moscow, the Dossier Center reported.

A list of residential addresses also revealed at least six apartment buildings in Moscow that contain homes sold or given to intelligence officers in the Foreign Intelligence Service, Russia's top external intelligence agency, per the outlet.

About 10 other entries in the document listed buildings in Moscow used by agents of the Federal Security Service, Russia's internal security and counterintelligence agency, per the Dossier Center.

Further entries also revealed dozens of undercover offices and facilities used by the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for guarding Russia's top leaders, and the Federal Security Service, the outlet wrote.

Many of these locations have already been identified as Russian intelligence facilities by investigative outlets such as Bellingcat, the Dossier Center noted.

Facilities and safe houses in the Primorsky, Leningrad, St. Petersburg, and Bryansk regions were also on the list, the Dossier Center wrote, showing screenshots of the document.

A spokesperson for the Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.



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