“Havana Syndrome”—a mysterious illness that has caused dizziness, pain, and even cognitive dysfunction in US diplomats and intelligence agents stationed throughout the world—is now being linked to a Russian intelligence agency and its alleged “sonic weaponry” by The Insider, Der Spiegel, and CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
Investigators have suggested since at least 2022 that patients of the illness, officially referred to as “anomalous health incidents” (AHIs), could have been targeted with microwave, directed energy, or pulse weapons. The new investigation suggests that the Russian intelligence unit known as 29155 has directly targeted the brains of US officials, citing evidence that Russian agents from this group were present at all the locations at the times when US personnel contracted the illness.
Russia denies the allegations. “No one has ever published or expressed any convincing evidence of these unfounded accusations anywhere. So, all of those are nothing more than unfounded accusations,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov regarding the new report.
As of last year, US officials were dismissive of the idea that a foreign adversary was responsible, but did not offer another explanation. Currently, they resist endorsing the theory with absolute certainty, and some analysts are less convinced than others.
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The first reports about the phenomena all concerned cases involving Americans working in Havana, Cuba, hence its name. But this new report indicates that there were cases in Germany two years earlier. American personnel located anywhere from Washington, DC to China have seen symptoms, and the Department of Defense announced Monday that someone fell ill at a NATO Summit in Lithuania in 2023.
They have affected agents in the FBI, CIA, and various White House offices. Over 1,000 cases have been recorded. “Bam, inside my right ear, it was like a dentist drilling on steroids,” an FBI agent who suffered from AHI told CBS. “That feeling when it gets too close to your eardrum? It’s like that, times 10.”
CBS sat down with a military investigator named Greg Edgreen, who argues that the people affected were often competent obstructionists of Russia and its activities. “There was some angle where they had worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and done extremely well,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Russian-based Insider claims that a 29155 officer received praise for developing “non-acoustic weapons.” Connections have been drawn between the unit and the failed poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
US officials told CBS that they would look into the matter further, but insisted that it is “very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible.”
The “60 Minutes” segment also raised the possibility that a police car chase on the Key West highway in Florida in June 2020 was related to Havana syndrome. For 15 miles the officer had to chase the perpetrator, who reached speeds of 110 mph. When he was finally apprehended, the officer found a Russian passport, bank account notes, and a device that could wipe the contents of a car’s computer system inside the vehicle.
The man said his name was “Vitalli” and claimed he was from St. Petersburg, but when asked why he was speeding away from the police he repeatedly said, “I don’t know.”
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted numerous close studies of the condition and could not find any evidence of brain damage.
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, business, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane’s work here.
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