Orso nascosto: gli hacker Gru della più famosa squadra di uccisioni della Russia

Some interesting nuggets in the article

In many other interactions with journalists and bloggers contacting the fake Anonymous account, Stigal tells each of them to contact Gaytandzhieva for further information and for “the complete dataset that she has.” In a long direct message exchange with Narine Grigoryan, an official then working in Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Stigal tried to convince Grigoryan to send a protest note to the Bulgarian ambassador in Yerevan in connection with “Bulgaria selling weapons to Azerbaijan to kill innocent Armenians.” This was in the aftermath of Azerbaijan’s four-day war with Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

**Stigal tried to convince an Armenian foreign ministry official to send a protest note to the Bulgarian ambassador in Yerevan in connection with “Bulgaria selling weapons to Azerbaijan”**

On July 3, 2017, Stigal wrote to Grigoryan: “It’s very important to call (sic) of bulgarian ambassador in Armenia and take over him protest note about military help to Azerbaijan. It’s reason for interrupting peace negotiations in region. From o[u]r side we try to control export of military goods from Bulgaria. We need some precedents to press on government and PM Borisov,” referring to Boyko Borisov, Bulgaria’s prime minister at the time. (This message came just two years after members of Unit 29155 had poisoned the Bulgarian arms trader Emilian Gebrev, who had been exporting munitions to Georgia and Ukraine.)

In a reply to Grigoryan’s question, “How can I help?” Stigal wrote, “Ask Dilyana, she’s a good girl,” and encouraged Grigoryan to try to contact Gaytandzhieva via Telegram.

Stigal even attempted to cultivate the Armenian into cooperation by citing her attractiveness. “You very beautiful and intelligent woman [sic] its a pity that not my wife,” he DMed her.

Grigoryan wrote back that she was acting “for my country but I appreciate the compliment.” She then asked Stigal how he knew what she looked like. “Trust me,” he answered, “you are insanely beautiful.”

The compliments fell short of achieving their goal when Stigal asked Grigoryan to help Gaytandzhieva “organize a protest in front of the Azerbaijan embassy in Sofia.” Grigoryan bowed out by saying she could not take part in anything of that nature. This disclosure from Stigal, however, hinted at Gaytandzhieva’s role as more than a scrivener for the GRU. She was now, according to her handler, acting as a provocateur on the service’s behalf.