Introduction: The War in the Shadows
For years, the phenomenon known colloquially as "Havana Syndrome" was dismissed by skeptics as mass hysteria, psychosomatic illness, or the result of environmental contaminants. The symptoms were terrifyingly consistent yet medically elusive: sudden vertigo, piercing ear pain, cognitive fog, and a sensation of intense pressure, often followed by long-term traumatic brain injury. However, as the veil of secrecy lifts, a darker reality has emerged. These were not accidents. They were kinetic engagements in a silent war, fought not with bullets, but with directed energy.
Nowhere is this reality more stark, and the evidence more compelling, than in the events that transpired in the quiet, snow-covered municipality of Bollnäs, Sweden, on November 25, 2019.
This report details the investigation into the Bollnäs Incident, a high-speed pursuit and subsequent electronic assault on United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials. It connects the dots between these attacks and the notorious Unit 29155 of the Russian GRU—a top-secret squad dedicated to sabotage, assassination, and destabilization. Through the analysis of travel data, rental car logs, and victim testimony, the Bollnäs Incident stands as one of the most definitive proofs of a coordinated campaign against Western intelligence personnel.
Part I: The Bollnäs Incident – November 25, 2019
Bollnäs is an unassuming town in Gävleborg County, roughly three hours north of Stockholm. It is a place of lakes and forests, far removed from the geopolitical friction of Washington or Moscow. Yet, in late 2019, it became the staging ground for a brazen act of aggression.
The targets were not diplomats, but seasoned officials from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon’s primary spy agency. These were individuals trained in counter-surveillance and threat detection. They were in Sweden for meetings that remain classified, but their presence had clearly been compromised.
The Pursuit
According to investigative reports released by 60 Minutes, The Insider, and Der Spiegel, the incident began as a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. The US officials noticed they were being followed. This was not the subtle surveillance typical of intelligence gathering; it was aggressive.
As the Americans drove through the Swedish countryside, attempting to evade their pursuers, the weather conditions were deteriorating. Snow and ice covered the roads. Despite the treacherous conditions, a vehicle trailed them relentlessly. The pursuit ended at a hotel in Bollnäs, where the Americans sought refuge, believing the public setting would offer safety.
The Attack
It was inside their rooms in Bollnäs that the weapon was deployed.
Victims described the onset as instantaneous. One official recounted a sensation of being "struck" by a force that wasn't physical but felt like a shockwave. The symptoms included:
- The Sound: A high-pitched, piercing noise that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere simultaneously.
- The Pressure: An intense sensation of pressure in the head, comparable to rapid decompression or being underwater.
- Vestibular Collapse: Immediate, crippling vertigo and nausea.
Unlike a biological agent or a conventional explosive, this attack left no shell casings and no chemical residue. It passed through walls and windows. When the attack subsided, the physical damage to the brain tissue had already begun, but the perpetrators had vanished into the Swedish night.
Part II: The Perpetrators – GRU Unit 29155
To understand the Bollnäs incident, one must understand the architects behind it. The investigation points directly to Unit 29155 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
Unlike other Russian intelligence units that focus on cyber warfare (like Unit 74455) or traditional espionage, Unit 29155 is a kinetic operations team. Their mandate is violence and chaos. They are the unit responsible for the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK, using the nerve agent Novichok. They have been linked to coup attempts in Montenegro and arms depot explosions in the Czech Republic.
The Operatives: Bezrukov and Kaplenkov
Forensic analysis of travel data and border crossings has placed two specific operatives of Unit 29155 in Sweden at the exact time of the Bollnäs attack: Alexander Bezrukov and Danil Kaplenkov.
These men did not travel under diplomatic cover. They entered the Schengen zone posing as tourists, a common tradecraft tactic for the unit. However, their digital footprint betrayed them.
- The Rental Car Logs: Investigative journalists obtained records showing that Bezrukov and Kaplenkov rented a vehicle in Stockholm. The telemetry and mileage logs of this vehicle paint a damning picture. The car was driven north, covering the distance to Bollnäs.
- The Timeline: The operatives arrived in the area shortly before the US officials and departed immediately after the incident occurred.
- The Blackout: During the window of the attack, the operatives' mobile devices went dark—a standard procedure known as "going black" to avoid cell tower triangulation during a sensitive operation.
The presence of Bezrukov and Kaplenkov in a remote Swedish town, coincident with the arrival of high-ranking US intelligence officials, is statistically impossible to dismiss as chance. They were there to hunt.
Part III: The Weaponry – Directed Energy and the Frey Effect
The most terrifying aspect of the Bollnäs incident is the weapon itself. For years, the US government hesitated to attribute these attacks to a specific device, but the physics of the symptoms points to Pulsed Radiofrequency (RF) Energy.
The Mechanism
The leading theory, supported by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, is that these attacks utilize the Frey Effect (or Microwave Auditory Effect).
Discovered in 1961 by Allan H. Frey, this phenomenon occurs when pulsed microwave energy strikes the human head. The energy causes a rapid thermal expansion of the brain tissue—microscopic in scale but violent in speed. This expansion generates a sound wave inside the skull, which is interpreted by the cochlea as a loud, clicking, or buzzing sound.
Why RF?
- Stealth: RF waves are invisible and silent to those outside the beam.
- Wall Penetration: Depending on the frequency (typically in the range of 1GHz to 6GHz), these waves can penetrate glass, brick, and drywall.
- Plausible Deniability: Because the weapon leaves no physical projectile, the attacker can claim the victim is suffering from natural causes.
In the context of the Bollnäs incident, the attackers likely used a portable, vehicle-mounted directed energy device. The technology required to generate these pulses is not futuristic; it has existed since the Cold War. However, miniaturizing it for field operations—fitting a high-power microwave emitter into a van or SUV—represents a significant escalation in tradecraft.
This aligns with the findings of recent RF scans in other investigation sites, where anomalous signals in the 2.4GHz to 6GHz range have been detected during suspected incidents. The "jamming" and "jitter" patterns often observed in these scenarios suggest a modulated signal designed not just to transmit data, but to disrupt biological systems.
Part IV: The Pattern of Escalation
Bollnäs was not an isolated event. It was part of a systematic campaign targeting US personnel across Europe and Asia. When viewed alongside other incidents, the involvement of Unit 29155 becomes undeniable.
Frankfurt, Germany (2019)
Shortly before the Sweden incident, a similar attack occurred in Frankfurt. US Consulate employees reported the familiar pressure and noise. Travel records show that the same Unit 29155 team, including operatives linked to the Sweden trip, were present in Germany.
Tbilisi, Georgia (2021)
Perhaps the most harrowing account comes from Tbilisi, where the wife of a US Justice Department official was attacked in her home. She reported hearing a piercing sound and feeling intense pressure. Looking out her window, she saw a man standing by a vehicle—a man she later identified from a photograph as Albert Averyanov, the son of the commander of Unit 29155, General Andrey Averyanov.
This visual identification was a breakthrough. Unlike Bollnäs, where the attackers remained faceless pursuers in a vehicle, the Tbilisi incident provided a face to the phenomenon. Albert Averyanov’s presence in Tbilisi, confirmed by phone location data and border entry logs, cemented the link between the unit’s leadership and the attacks on the ground.
Hanoi, Vietnam (2021)
The reach of Unit 29155 extended beyond Europe. In 2021, a scheduled visit by Vice President Kamala Harris to Hanoi was delayed due to a "possible anomalous health incident." Multiple US officials were evacuated. While the specific operatives involved in Hanoi have been harder to track due to the region's different travel infrastructure, the modus operandi—targeting high-level diplomatic visits to sow chaos and fear—bears the signature of the GRU.
Part V: The Medical Aftermath – "The Immaculate Concussion"
The term "Havana Syndrome" fails to capture the severity of the injuries sustained by the victims in Bollnäs and elsewhere. Medical professionals at the University of Pennsylvania and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have studied these patients extensively.
The diagnosis is often referred to as an "Immaculate Concussion."
In a traditional concussion, the brain strikes the inside of the skull due to a physical blow. In AHI cases, the damage mimics a concussion, yet the head was never struck. The symptoms are chronic and debilitating:
- Vestibular Dysfunction: Victims lose their balance permanently, requiring months of physical therapy to walk in a straight line.
- Visual Convergence Issues: The eyes fail to focus together, making reading or looking at screens impossible.
- Cognitive Impairment: High-functioning intelligence officers find themselves unable to remember simple words or perform basic tasks.
For the DIA officials attacked in Bollnäs, the incident effectively ended their careers. They were removed from the field, their health shattered. This reveals the strategic logic of the attacks: it is a method of "soft-killing" enemy assets. By incapacitating key intelligence personnel without killing them, the GRU degrades US intelligence capabilities while avoiding the diplomatic fallout of a murder.
Part VI: The Cover-Up and the Awakening
For years, the official stance of the US Intelligence Community (IC) was skepticism. The 2023 "AHI Assessment" released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) stated it was "very unlikely" a foreign adversary was responsible.
However, the Bollnäs investigation exposes the flaws in that assessment. The ODNI report relied heavily on the lack of a "smoking gun"—a captured weapon. But in the world of intelligence, the absence of a weapon does not negate the presence of a victim or a perpetrator.
The investigative work by The Insider, 60 Minutes, and Der Spiegel utilized data that the IC often compartmentalizes. By aggregating commercial travel data, phone metadata, and open-source records, these journalists built a case that is harder to refute than the classified assessments.
Why the Denial?
Geopolitical analysts suggest several reasons for the US government's hesitation to officially blame Russia:
- Act of War: Officially declaring that the Russian military is attacking US officials with directed energy weapons would constitute an act of war. It would demand a response that could escalate into a direct conflict between nuclear powers.
- Intelligence Protection: Admitting the attacks confirms that US counter-intelligence failed to protect its agents.
- Psychological Warfare: Acknowledging the weapon validates its effectiveness. By denying it, the US attempts to deny Russia the satisfaction of knowing the attacks worked.
However, for the victims of Bollnäs, this denial has been a second injury. They were left to fight for medical care and recognition while their government downplayed the reality of what happened to them in the snows of Sweden.
Part VII: Conclusion – The New Battlefield
The Bollnäs Incident is a watershed moment in modern espionage history. It signifies the end of the "gentleman's rules" of spycraft. The Cold War had red lines; officers were expelled, not maimed. Unit 29155 has erased those lines.
The use of directed energy weapons represents a terrifying evolution in asymmetric warfare. These weapons are portable, invisible, and leave no ballistic evidence. They turn a hotel room, a private home, or a moving car into a battlefield.
As we move forward into 2025 and beyond, the monitoring of the RF spectrum becomes not just a technical necessity, but a matter of survival. The "Live Monitor" systems, like the one tracking frequencies in the 1MHz to 6GHz range, are the new perimeter fences. We are no longer looking for men in trench coats; we are looking for spikes in the noise floor, for the invisible pulse that precedes the silence.
The snow in Bollnäs has long since melted, but the cold reality remains: The war is happening all around us, on frequencies we cannot hear, waged by an enemy that does not sleep.
References & Further Reading
- CBS 60 Minutes: "Havana Syndrome: Evidence Suggests Who May Be Responsible." (Aired March 31, 2024).
- The Insider: "Unraveling Havana Syndrome: New Evidence Links the GRU's Assassination Unit 29155 to Mysterious Attacks on U.S. Officials."
- Der Spiegel: "Targeted: The Russian Spies Behind the Havana Syndrome."
- Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): "Neurological Manifestations Among US Government Personnel Reporting Anomalous Health Incidents."
- Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation: "Directed Energy Weapons and the Future of Asymmetric Conflict."
Part VIII: The Smoking Gun – Project "Reductor"
While the US Intelligence Community publicly cited a lack of a "weapon," Russian state documents acquired by investigators tell a different story. The investigation into Unit 29155 uncovered a paper trail linking the unit’s commander, Andrey Averyanov, to the Military Medical Academy (VMA) in St. Petersburg.
Specifically, the investigation unearthed accounting documents and emails referencing a classified program known as "Reductor."
The Acoustic-RF Hybrid
The "Reductor" system is not a standard communication device. It is described in Russian military procurement documents as a system for "non-lethal acoustic influence." However, the genius—and the horror—of the design lies in its delivery mechanism.
Traditional acoustic weapons (like LRADs used for crowd control) are large, loud, and easily identified. The "Reductor" appears to utilize the Frey Effect to deliver the acoustic trauma via electromagnetic waves. By modulating a Radio Frequency (RF) carrier wave with an audio frequency, the device can project sound directly into the target's skull without the sound traveling through the air.
This explains the "immaculate" nature of the attack in Bollnäs. A microphone placed in the room might not pick up the sound, but the human brain, acting as a demodulator for the RF energy, perceives it as a deafening roar.
The 2019 Transfer
Crucially, just weeks before the Bollnäs incident, General Averyanov was in constant communication with the scientists developing "Reductor." Flight logs show these scientists traveling to cities where Unit 29155 operatives were stationed. The timing suggests that late 2019 was the operational field test of a portable version of this system—a test that the DIA officials in Sweden unwittingly became the subjects of.
Part IX: The Forensic Trail – How They Were Caught
The exposure of the Bollnäs operation and the broader AHI campaign is a testament to the power of modern Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Unit 29155, despite being an elite squad, made critical errors that allowed investigative journalists to dismantle their cover.
The "Sequential Passport" Error
For years, the GRU issued passports to its undercover operatives from a specific passport office in Moscow. In a bureaucratic oversight, these passports were often issued with sequential serial numbers.
When investigators identified one known GRU agent (from the Skripal poisoning or the Montenegro coup attempt), they simply looked at the passport numbers immediately preceding and following that agent's number in the database. This simple method revealed dozens of deep-cover operatives, including Alexander Bezrukov and Danil Kaplenkov, the men in Sweden.
The Telemetry Betrayal
In the 20th century, spies could disappear. In the 21st century, every movement generates data.
- Rental Cars: The operatives rented cars using their cover identities. Modern vehicles record GPS data, speed, and even when doors are opened or closed. This data was purchased or acquired by investigators, allowing them to reconstruct the high-speed chase in Bollnäs turn-by-turn.
- Speeding Tickets: In their haste to flee the scene of the Bollnäs attack, the operatives triggered automated speed cameras. These photos provided visual confirmation of the driver and passenger, cross-referencing perfectly with the passport photos of the Unit 29155 agents.
The "09" License Plates
In Russia, the operatives drove vehicles registered to the Ministry of Defense, often with license plates containing specific codes (like "09" or "77") linked to intelligence services. By tracking these personal vehicles in Moscow, investigators could see when the team was assembling at their HQ (Address: Khoroshevskoye Shosse 76B) prior to deploying to Europe.
Part X: The Future of Defense – Spectrum Sovereignty
The Bollnäs Incident has forced a paradigm shift in how nations—and individuals—protect themselves. Physical security (walls, guards, armored glass) is no longer sufficient. If a weapon can pass through a wall as easily as a radio signal, the only defense is detection.
The Role of RF Monitoring
This is where systems like the HackRF and continuous spectrum monitoring come into play. The attacks are preceded by specific RF signatures:
- Wideband Pulsing: Unlike a steady Wi-Fi signal, AHI weapons often utilize rapid, high-power pulses to induce the thermal expansion required for the Frey Effect.
- Frequency Hopping: To avoid simple detection, the carrier wave may hop frequencies rapidly (Jitter), making it look like background noise to a standard scanner.
- The "Noise Floor" Rise: A sudden, unexplained rise in the RF noise floor across a wide bandwidth (e.g., 1GHz - 6GHz) can indicate a directed energy source is active nearby.
The "Deep Tone" Protocol
The concept of "Deep Tone" monitoring—scanning for deep, anomalous patterns in the RF spectrum—is the civilian and military response to this threat. By logging signal strength, frequency distribution, and timing (as seen in the automated scripts running on the Bollnäs investigation servers), we create a digital tripwire.
If an attack like Bollnäs were to happen today in a monitored zone, the "Live Monitor" would capture the spike. It would provide the frequency, the power density, and the duration—data that serves as both a warning system and forensic evidence.
Part XI: Final Analysis
The Bollnäs Incident was not just an attack on three Americans; it was a signal that the rules of engagement have changed. We have entered an era of Hybrid Warfare, where the lines between peace and conflict are blurred by technology that leaves no trace.
The victims of Bollnäs are living testaments to this new reality. Their injuries are real, their careers are lost, and their attackers are known. While governments debate the diplomatic consequences, the data speaks for itself.
The shadow war is no longer in the shadows. It is in the airwaves. And the only way to see it is to keep watching the spectrum.
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