The Russian spy chief who allegedly oversaw the attacks on the Skripals in the United Kingdom has died.
Igor Korobov, 62, had headed the defence ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) since 2016 and was the target of USA sanctions.
Korobov's agency entered the worldwide spotlight this year when Britain accused it of perpetrating the near-fatal attack on former Russian spy turned double agent Sergei Skripal in the southern English city of Salisbury.
The Netherlands believes the agency has tried to hack a global chemical weapons watchdog, and US intelligence agencies said the GRU was behind attempts to hack the 2016 USA presidential election.
The West has blamed the GRU for a string of brazen attacks.
Korobov, a Soviet air force veteran who joined the GRU in 1985, reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Historically a secretive, little-understood agency, the G.R.U. under General Korobov emerged as Russia's primary tool of global disruption.
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Korobov was absent from a ceremony in Moscow this month where Putin and other senior officials celebrated the centenary of the GRU, with the Russian leader praising its skill and "unique abilities".
At the time, Kanev's sources speculated that Korobov might be fired before the end of the year and replaced by GRU General Sergey Gizunov, a St. Petersburg native who is supposedly known as "Putin's eyes and ears inside Russia's military intelligence".
He died on Wednesday from a "long and serious illness", the ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the president had maintained a "regular dialogue" with Korobov as the chief of one of the nation's top intelligence agencies. On September 20, 2018, again, he was put on another sanctions list on charges of "interference in 2016 U.S. Elections".
Korobov's predecessors, Igor Sergun, also died unexpectedly in 2016.
Russian Federation has two other main spy organisations: the Federal Security Service (FSB), mainly involved in internal security, and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), whose role is similar to that of Britain's MI6.
Its structure, staff numbers and finances are a state secret.
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