Ryska GRU kan ligga bakom försök till valpåverkan 2016 – och Novitjok-förgiftning

Main Intelligence Directorate (Russian: Гла́вное разве́дывательное управле́ние, tr. Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye, IPA: [ˈɡlavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə]), abbreviated GRU (Russian: ГРУ, IPA: [ɡeeˈru]), is the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (formerly the Soviet Army General Staff of the Soviet Union). Since 2010, the agency′s official full name is the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (Russian: Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых Сил Росси́йской Федера́ции). The GRU is Russia's largest foreign intelligence agency. In 1997 it deployed six times as many agents in foreign countries as the SVR, the successor of the KGB's foreign operations directorate (PGU KGB). It also commanded 25,000 Spetsnaz troops in 1997.

The 2017–present Special Counsel investigation is an ongoing United States law enforcement investigation of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and any Russian (or other foreign) interference in the election, including exploring any possible links or coordination between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government, "and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." The scope of the investigation reportedly also includes potential obstruction of justice by President Trump and others. Since May 2017, the investigation has been led by a United States Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, a former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Mueller's investigation took over several FBI investigations including those involving former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, both of which started before the 2016 presidential election. Manafort has been indicted on various tax, financial, and bank fraud crimes in October 2017 and faces trial in September 2018. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI and became a cooperating witness in December 2017. Mueller further secured guilty pleas from Manafort's business partner Rick Gates, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan, and Richard Pinedo, all of who became cooperating witnesses to the probe. In February 2018, Mueller indicted 13 Russian citizens and 3 Russian entities, most notably the Internet Research Agency, and in June 2018 added an indictment of Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort's business partner. Investigations into Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen were referred to the US Attorney's office of the Southern District of New York.While initially enjoying bipartisan support, the special counsel investigation became subject to fierce criticism by President Trump and his surrogates in the conservative media within months, eventually peddling a "deep state" conspiracy theory. Several allegations of investigators' misconduct have been raised and were almost immediately debunked, including supposed unlawful wire-tapping of Trump Tower during the campaign, unmasking of Trump associates on intelligence intercepts, FISA court abuse against Carter Page detailed in the Nunes memo, and the alleged installation of a spy in the Trump campaign.