Strike on Russia’s shadow fleet could mean elimination of key Russian intelligence figure – Rezazade

Russian media reports about an attack on a Russian shadow fleet tanker in the Mediterranean could have much deeper consequences than a regular incident at sea.

According to preliminary data, the attack killed a high-ranking Russian intelligence general, Andrei Averyanov, and injured at least seven others, including several of his deputies. The information currently requires official confirmation, but the very fact of its appearance has already caused a stir in Russian and international expert circles.

Russian sources call Averyanov one of the figures closest to Vladimir Putin in the field of sabotage and covert operations. He is credited with leading shadow supply schemes, espionage in EU countries, organizing sabotage, bombings in Europe, and coordinating drone launches. Separate sources also claim that he was involved in the liquidation of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK and a number of other secret Kremlin operations.

International expert and first vice-president of the Iranian opposition in Washington Ali Reza Rezazade notes that even partial confirmation of this information would mean a serious blow to the power core of the Russian system. “If the data on the death of Averyanov is confirmed, we are not just talking about the loss of a general. This is the loss of a shadow war operator, a person who for years coordinated the most sensitive and dirty operations of the Kremlin outside the Russian Federation,” the expert emphasizes.

According to Rezazade, the very nature of the attack — a strike on a shadow fleet tanker — is symbolic. “The shadow fleet is the lifeblood of the Russian war, a tool for circumventing sanctions and financing special operations. If a high-ranking GRU general was on such a ship, this once again confirms how closely military intelligence is integrated into illegal energy and logistics schemes,” he notes.

The expert also draws attention to the possible political consequences. “Such strikes are not just physical liquidation. This is a signal to the entire power vertical in Moscow: even the figures closest to Putin can no longer feel safe, especially outside the Russian Federation,” Rezazade emphasizes.

In his opinion, if the information is confirmed, the Kremlin will try to either minimize the significance of the incident or hide the real circumstances of the event altogether. “But for the West and Ukraine, this will be a telling moment: the shadow war that Russia has been waging for years is increasingly returning to it in the form of direct losses,” the expert summarizes.