According to Russian media, they are now moving surrounded by soldiers of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
The source informed that, on the instructions of the head of the GRU Internal Security Service, Vladimir Petrov, the security of the senator from the Astrakhan region Andrei Derkach (former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine) was tightened. Representatives of the GRU began to accompany him everywhere. The interlocutor of the project does not know what this is connected with, “taking everything into account, with some information from the special services.”
“It is noteworthy that after the assassination attempts on the generals [Алексея] Titova (Deputy Head of the Fifth Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation) and [Владимира] Alekseev (deputy chief of the GRU) it was decided not to change the algorithms for protecting the Russian generals,” the message says.
Context
Andriy Derkach is the son of former head of the SBU Leonid Derkach. He began his political career in Ukraine, working in the executive branch, and since 1998 he has been continuously elected to the Verkhovna Rada.
At different periods he headed the state-owned companies Energoatom and Ukratomprom. In 2020, the politician became widely known after the release of recordings that he claimed contained conversations between former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and US Vice President Joe Biden.
After Russia's full-scale invasion, Derkach was arrested in absentia for collaborating with the Russian military intelligence service GRU. Law enforcement officers then stated that they “found and seized materials indicating long-term subversive activities on the part of the current people’s deputy against Ukraine, his connections with representatives of the aggressor state and collaborators.”
In 2023, President Vladimir Zelensky deprived Derkach of Ukrainian citizenship, after which the Verkhovna Rada terminated his parliamentary powers ahead of schedule.
In September 2024, the governor of the Astrakhan region, Igor Babushkin, delegated him to the Federation Council. And in November it became known that Derkach is a member of the defense committee of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
In November 2025, in the Energoatom case, which is connected with the high-profile Midas investigation, a new trail leading to Derkach emerged. According to the investigation, the legalization of funds received by those involved in the case took place through an office in the center of Kyiv, which belongs to the family of a former people’s deputy suspected of high treason.
On December 10, Kommersant reported that by that time the senator from the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation, Derkach, had received the title of Hero of Russia.
