A Serbo-Croatian-speaking agent and his Russian handler turned to Google Translate to ensure smooth operational communication. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was reading the logs in real-time.
A new investigation by the Insider looks into the operations of Russia’s elite squad, the Center 795, which was established after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The squad comprises elite agents tasked with carrying out the most critical operations, including collecting battlefield intelligence, political assassinations, and abductions abroad.
To execute the operation on Western soil, the squad hired Darko Durovic, a Serbo-Croatian speaker living in the United States. He had mobility in Europe and no obvious ties to Russian intelligence, making him a convenient asset.
However, there was a major problem: Durovic spoke Serbo-Croatian, while his handler, Denis Alimov, spoke Russian. Neither was proficient in the other’s native language to the level required for operational communication.
Therefore, they decided to use Google Translate to convert field reports and instructions. They sent translated messages through encrypted applications, which they deemed safe.
What they didn’t take into account was that Google operates servers in the United States, which fall within the reach of an FBI surveillance warrant.
This allowed investigators to access the logs of these translations directly from the service provider, enabling them to read the entire operational communications thread in real-time, according to the Insider.
For example, on November 28th, 2024, Durovic messaged Alimov detailing his exact travel plans, saying he would try to find their target in New York.
Earlier that month, he used search engines to research what he likely sought as his murder weapon and where to obtain it in Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica.
Durovic was arrested in March 2025, while Alimov stayed free until February 2026.
The Insider writes that Russia will build another unit and will be more careful about the translation tools it uses. However, it is an “entirely different question” whether it will be more careful about the people it recruits.
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