The 'family

A family-run hotel hotel on the Greek coast is reported to be an alleged safehouse for the notorious GRU Russian spy agency, whose operatives have carried out bombings and poisonings across Europe.

Villa Elena in Frama, on the Halkidiki peninsula, overlooks the sparkling Aegean and is complete with an outdoor swimming pool and large private garden, and charges £120-a-night.

Named after its owner Elena Saposnikov, who ran it with her husband Nikolay, the three-storey pile appears unassuming, and is still listed on holiday booking sites.

But for the last 15 years, the property has hosted members of GRU Unit 29155, the Kremlin's 'most grimly accomplished assassination and sabotage squad,' according to an investigation by Moscow-sanctioned platform The Insider.

The group has been behind attacks on NATO soil, including the Salisbury poisonings and deadly explosions in the Czech Republic, and the husband and wife team who allegedly hosted its operatives are said to have abetted some of its activities.

Villa Elena in Frama, Halkidiki, overlooks the sparkling Aegean and is complete with an outdoor swimming pool and large private garden

Elena and Nikolay Saposnikov bought the hotel in 2009. He died this year from a heart attack

Last year, Prague declared the Saposnikovs 'persons of interest' in connection with the 2014 bombing in Vrbetice

General Andrey Averyanov, the commander of the elite intelligence unit and a close ally of Vladimir Putin's, is reported to have been in direct contact with the couple, with phone data even suggesting he stayed at their hotel.

READ MORE: Russian GRU spies behind 2018 Salisbury poisonings also destroyed Czech ammo stores killing two in 2014 blasts having used same fake names for the covert operation, probe finds 

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Elena is said to have been the boss in the husband and wife operation, and was reportedly considered such a valuable asset to Moscow that she was awarded one of its top honours, the Hero of the Russian Federation medal, by Putin himself.

Both born in the former Soviet Union, the Saposnikovs were awarded political asylum in what was then Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s before the collapse of the USSR, before becoming citizens of the Czech Republic.

Their application for citizenship was 'riddled with omissions, misrepresentations, and forgeries,' according to The Insider, with claims they were approved by corrupt Czech officials.

Nikolay, a former Soviet military officer, went on to be investigated by Czech authorities over his job at an arms company, with claims his modest salary was insufficient to cover the pair's lavish lifestyle.

Nevertheless, they went on to buy their sprawling luxury villa in Halkidiki for £235,000 in 2009, leaving Czechia and moving in a year later.

Elena, whose family hails from Kyiv, told investigators that she had funded the purchase 'with money from my parents', who are reported to have been in their 70s and lived on pension of less than £250 a month.

They set about running it as a hotel from 2010, and while sites such as TripAdvisor and Booking.com contained links to the property, dates are not publicly bookable.

The couple bought the sprawling three-storey villa in Halkidiki for £235,000 in 2009

Picture from TripAdvisor is believed to show the inside of the Halkidiki hotel

Meanwhile, between 2012 and 2018, four GRU members are alleged to have stayed at the hotel.

Its proprietors are also said to have assisted the unit in its activities, including on NATO territory in Czechia. The Insider says that the Šapošnikov family are the first 'illegals' to be directly linked to Unit 29155.

'Illegals' is a term for Russian sleeper agents living as naturalised citizens in foreign countries while covertly carrying out the Kremlin's bidding abroad.

The family allegedly helped agents Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga to infiltrate two government-run warehouses in the Czech Republic, and plant explosives there in October 2014.

Czech intelligence and media said the agents were the same ones suspected of poisoning former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England, in 2018 - Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin (pictured)

Two months later, another explosion took place near the eastern village of Vrbetice. Two workers were killed in the blasts and they caused extensive damage.

Britain later accused Mishkin and Chepiga of carrying out the assassination attempt against former Russian agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.

He and his daughter Yulia survived, but a local woman, Dawn Sturgess, died after picking up a bottle of the nerve agent novichok which they had discarded. 

Czech authorities announced back in 2021 that they had received evidence of Russian involvement in the Czech explosions and expelled 18 Russian diplomats.

Moscow later labelled the Czech Republic as 'an unfriendly state' that has 'carried out unfriendly actions' against Russia. 

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found on a bench together close to Salisbury Cathedral on the afternoon of March 4 having been poisoned with nerve-agent Novichok

And last year, Prague declared the Saposnikovs 'persons of interest' in connection with the bombing, calling on Greek authorities to question them.

The couple reportedly responded to the allegations claiming they were being persecuted because of their Russian roots and used as 'scapegoats in the name of unknown interests'.

While they admitted to Czech investigators that the men identified as GRU operatives had stayed at their hotel, they were unaware that they had been working for Moscow's military intelligence.

Nikolay died of a heart attack in Greece in February at the age of 62, Greek site Inside Story reports, while Greece is yet to rule on whether Elena can be extradited to the Czech Republic.

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