Russian University Teaches Hacking, Election Meddling To Military Intelligence Aspirants

As the Russia-Ukraine war continues, a select group of students are being trained in hacking and election meddling, according to a report by The Guardian.

According to the UK media outlet, a select group of students were quietly prepared in Department 4 of Bauman Moscow state technical university for careers in the GRU – Russia’s military intelligence directorate, whose operatives have hacked western parliaments, poisoned dissidents on foreign soil and interfered in elections across Europe and the US.

The report was based on more than 2,000 internal documents from Bauman that were obtained by a consortium of journalists from six outlets: The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, the Insider, Delfi and VSquare.

Bauman, founded in 1830, is one of Russia’s

leading technical universities. Since it was established, the university has trained engineers and scientists who built Soviet rockets, tanks and weapons systems.

“Sometimes you are first scouted from school, then go to Bauman and join the services … it is part of a pipeline,” a former senior Russian defence official was quoted.

According to The Guardian, the documents, dated till 2025, included course syllabuses, exam records, staff contracts and the career assignments of individual graduates, tracing their path from classroom exercises in hacking and disinformation to postings in some of the most notorious cyber-units in the Russian military intelligence apparatus.

The documents state that the university’s Department 4 is divided into three specialist streams, of which the most prominent bearing the code 093400 is titled the “Special Reconnaissance Service”.

It further stated that the department is led by lieutenant colonel Lt Col Kirill Stupakov, a signals intelligence officer who had signed a three-year contract in 2022 with GRU Unit 45807, one of the agency’s key units. According to The Guardian, Stupakov’s subjects include training students to master electronic eavesdropping and covert surveillance.

Another teacher, as per the documents, is Viktor Netyksho, a western-sanctioned major general who commanded Unit 26165 – a hacking group known as Fancy Bear – whose officers were indicted by the US Department of Justice for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

One of the core courses taught in this department is “Defence against technical reconnaissance,” which is spread for over 144 hours across two semesters. In this, the students are taught the full toolkit of modern hacking, including password attacks, software vulnerabilities and so called trojans – malicious programs disguised as legitimate software that can grant unauthorised access to a system, The Guardian cited the documents.

To clear the course, the students have to reportedly carry out “practical penetration tests”. Besides, they need to develop computer virus as part of assessment.

According to The Guardian, students are also taught the structure and organisation of US and British military intelligence agencies. There are reportedly sessions on the use of western intelligence in the war in Ukraine, and development of strike drones on the Ukrainian battlefield.

The course here also includes information warfare wherein the advanced students need to attend seminar on developing a disinformation campaign with focus on creating a social media video using “manipulation, pressure and hidden propaganda”.