Adversary Intelligence — 2026-05-07

Leaked Documents Expose GRU Secret Training Faculty at Bauman University Linking Graduates to NotPetya and Election Hacking Units

The Insider and five partner outlets analyzed more than 2,000 leaked internal documents from Bauman University's Department 4, spanning 2022 to 2024, showing the GRU directly shapes curricula in offensive hacking, disinformation, and electronic reconnaissance at the department. A Western intelligence official, unnamed but cited by The Insider, described the collection as "a yearbook directory for incoming GRU operatives." Department correspondence dated February 2024 bears the signature of Viktor Netyksho, the GRU general indicted by Special Counsel Mueller in July 2018 for directing Fancy Bear's theft of DNC emails, placing him on the department's faculty. The Insider also identified UK-sanctioned GRU officer Yuri Shikolenko in department records and traced 2024 graduate Alexei Kondrashov to current service in Unit 74455.

Analysis
Netyksho's continued faculty role through at least February 2024, six years post-indictment, confirms the GRU treats Western legal exposure as irrelevant to domestic personnel decisions, per a single leak event that The Insider's partners distributed without independent corroboration. Kondrashov's placement in Unit 74455 within a year of graduation tightens attribution pathways for future Sandworm-linked destructive operations. Western governments are unlikely to sanction the Bauman program by 5 August 2026. No government has signaled intent to designate an academic institution on these grounds, and the named roster carries higher intelligence value exploited quietly than through public designation. The collection may instead be a controlled Russian release designed to surface already-compromised personnel and distort Western understanding of the actual pipeline.

2 sources

The GRU Hogwarts: Inside Bauman University Department 4 - The Insider
Revealed Russia top secret spy school hacking western electoral interference - The Guardian