Mysterious death of the Russian ambassador
The Russian embassy announced on its social media page that its employee Aleksey Panov had died on January 8, allegedly by suicide. The diplomatic mission also said that his body would be repatriated to Russia.
Notably, the Russian embassy made the information public only three days after Panov’s actual date of death, a detail highlighted by expert Dmytro Khmelnytskyi.
Khmelnytskyi, a researcher of Russian influence abroad and the author of the book “Russian Agents of Influence in Germany” as well as investigations into intelligence activity in Cyprus, also reported that the diplomatic mission did not allow Cypriot police onto its premises immediately after Panov’s death and allegedly did not hand over the suicide note he was said to have left.
What Panov did in the Russian military intelligence
Panov, 41, was a GRU officer holding the rank of captain, according to Khmelnytskyi’s sources.
The expert also claims that before his assignment in Cyprus, Aleksey Panov worked at a Moscow institute linked to radio engineering. As for his direct tasks for Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), they reportedly included maintaining surveillance equipment at the embassy and, likely, outside its premises as well.
Expert commentary
“If the cause of death had been personal circumstances, it’s unclear why his death was concealed for so long. That suggests there was something that put them in a difficult position, and negotiations with Moscow went on for four days. I do not rule out that he may have been preparing to defect, which was uncovered and ‘prevented’ – something that is entirely typical for Soviet and Russian intelligence services,” Khmelnytskyi said.
He also added that, in his view, Russian embassies have long functioned more as intelligence hubs than as diplomatic missions, and now, when diplomacy has been reduced to an absolute minimum, intelligence work is almost the only thing they do.
According to the outlet, journalists were unable to find any publicly available information about the deceased Aleksey Panov.