
We are starting a series of BaumankaLeaks publications based on the data from hacked email correspondence of high-ranking Russian officers. We will make public some interesting classified data, lists and documents from the Military Training Center (MTC), which make part of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (BMSTU). The information was retrieved by Ukrainian hacktivists of the Cyber Resistance group and provided for analysis and publication to volunteers of InformNapalm volunteer intelligence community. This part contains classified operating manuals of key Russian air defense systems, personal data of more than a hundred young air defense/missile defense officers, who, in particular, cover the skies over Moscow and the Kremlin.
Introduction
“Engineers create the future, we create engineers” – this is the motto posted on the home page of the BMSTU. Since Soviet times, this university has built a reputation as a fundamental engineering training center for strategic industries, in particular aviation and space. The establishment is widely known by its informal name: “Baumanka”. In the latest version of the prestigious world university rankings QS-2025, Baumanka comes second in the Russian Federation. And, it has improved its position over the past year.
In addition, the BMSTU ranks the highest among Russian institutions represented in the ranking in terms of attracting foreign teachers and scientists. The higher this indicator, the higher is the level of academic cooperation, knowledge and experience exchange, and, as a result, the international profile of the institution.
Well, let us take a look at the case of the prestigious BMSTU to see whether Russian universities and research centers are really “beyond politics,” as claimed by opponents of Russia’s complete isolation from the world’s achievements in technology and science.
One of the divisions of the BMSTU is the Military Training Center (MTC). This is not just your usual reserve-officer training department, but in fact an entire academic division with a specific faculty within the university. The university as such trains the technical elite for Russia, and the MTC trains the elite military personnel for service in air and missile defense units and even in the Strategic Rocket Forces.
The two protagonists of this feature work at the MTC: Lieutenant Colonel Alexey Zakrutny and Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Potapov. We could have created a separate OSINT profile for both, but their immediate supervisor supplied a well-documented and fact-filled assessment of his subordinates:
Although he indicated that both of these officers “know how to protect state secrets,” these documents were extracted from their mailboxes. Just like everything else published in this publication.
Ukrainian hacktivists from the Cyber Resistance team retrieved the data and handed it over to volunteers of InformNapalm volunteer intelligence community for analysis.
Here, for example, are non-public photographs of lieutenant colonels in a working environment.
Here is Lieutenant Colonel Alexey Zakrutny:
And here is Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Potapov (center):
We also have identification documents of both of them: driver’s licenses and passports.
How does the MTC work and who exactly does it train?
The Department of Anti-Aircraft Missile Forces, where Lieutenant Colonels Zakrutny and Potapov work, is one of the 8 departments of the MTC. The full list of departments is available from open sources:
These are the most technologically advanced troops; therefore, all the students need to pass a selection before admission to the MTC. For example, the center does not accept students who have received the third of professional and psychological fitness category (drivers-grade positions) from the military registration and enlistment office. Also, all educational programs require students to have a state secret clearance. In addition, the students and their relatives must not hold any other citizenship than Russian.
On the level of ideology, the cadets are being prepared exclusively for war against NATO. Therefore, the training is focused on studying the weapons of the NATO countries. At the same time, Russian military teachers did not devote a single class hour to studying the development of e.g. China’s strategic weapons.
Other messages in the center’s official communications are also indicative of the scope and quality of professional training for the Russian army personnel. The MTC does not offer formal engineer training to get a reserve officer status in order to dodge conscription service, this much is directly written on the website of the Anti-Aircraft Missile Forces Department. The page stresses, in particular, that they train officers for service in the army under contract.
Many documents from the mailboxes of Zakrutny and Potapov contain class lists of the study groups. However, in the context of scale, it is worth paying attention to the file named Russian Ministry of Defense. In Russia, there is a practice of so-called “targeted training”. This means that a certain organization funds a student’s education in return for a commitment to work for it for three years at least after graduation. The mentioned document contains a list of 115 BMSTU graduates from 2019 and 2020, whose education was paid for by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
- Full document: Russian Ministry of Defense [Rus]
Another document shows the exact duty stations of the MTC graduates. Most serve in air defense units covering Moscow and the Moscow Oblast, the Baltic and Northern fleets.
- Full document: Graduates [Rus]
Additional work for the Russian army
The activities of the Baumanka’s MTC are not limited to giving lectures and conducting seminars for future officers. The correspondence of both Zakrutny and Potapov convincingly shows that both are also engaged in scientific research in the field of operations and maintenance improvement for the existing types of weapons. This applies more to Potapov, whose mail contains a lot of sensitive information. For example, find under the links below an operating manual by Potapov for Pantsir-S air defense system classified as “Restricted”.
- Full document: Potapov.pdf [Rus]
And here is another manual for the Tor-M1 air defense system from Zakrutny’s mail.
- Full document: Tor [Rus]
The commander’s assessment given at the beginning of this feature indicates that Potapov is a veteran of combat operations in Syria. This is also confirmed by an order Potapov placed in October 2022 on the website planki.ru, where among his awards he lists the medal To Participant of the Military Operation in Syria.
But this is not the only link to the Syrian story. Potapov’s mail also contains a sample travel order for a 10-day duty trip to Khmeimim. It is the location of the Russian troop’s airbase in Syria.
- Full document: 17file [Rus]
Potapov’s address for the time of the duty trip is telling: “field post, military unit 23944 (SAR).” This is the code designation for the Russian military group in Syria, as it is known from documents of Russian courts.
The dates of the duty trip are December 1-10, 2020, and Potapov receives the letter with the trip permit from the head of financial and cash operations of the BMSTU Natalia Klimova, on December 14, 2020.
Apparently, Potapov traveled to Syria not only in the spring of 2021 (as indicated in the assessment), but also in the winter of 2020. Notably, during this duty trip he acted as an employee of the BMSTU. He wrote the duty trip request not to the head of the university’s Military Training Center, but to the rector of the entire university, Anatoly Alexandrov. His daily allowance ($62 for each day of the trip) came from the university cash desk.
Why are we going into all these details? Among Western scientists, there are still widespread views that science is beyond politics, and scientific cooperation knows no boundaries. Potapov’s duty trip is documentary evidence that an allegedly civilian Russian university is directly involved in the war that Russia is waging abroad. This should be remembered the next time any colleagues decide to invite any BMSTU specialists to a scientific conference somewhere in Europe. Requests for a duty trip to Syria or a gaming conference in Wales are written according to the same template at this Russian university.
Is it possible to find out what exactly Potapov was doing in Khmeimim? He is one of the leading Russian experts on the Pantsir-S1 and the S-300/400 aerial defense systems. Apparently, he was busy plugging holes in the Russian airbase’s aerial defenses. Back in 2019, the Russian press wrote quite often about Khmeimim being targeted; and there were even reports of equipment losses.
That same year, Potapov became interested in new antenna designs that could detect smaller objects at low altitudes.
Here are links to these documents for analysis by specialists:
Moreover, we must not forget that the Russian air raids from the Khmeimim airbase in Syria were essential war crimes. In particular, the carpet bombing of the city of Aleppo in 2016, long gone from the headlines. Human Rights Watch deemed it a war crime due to the indiscriminate use of weapons by Russian pilots and, above all, the bombing of hospitals. In May 2020, the bombing of Syrian hospitals was also recognized as a war crime by Amnesty International.
In June 2020, for lack of arguments in its defense, Russia unilaterally withdrew from the UN treaty on the protection of medical infrastructure in Syria.
And six months after these events, Vladimir Potapov, a teacher from the BMSTU, a reputable civilian university, came to the Khmeimim airbase on a duty trip. BMSTU took part in Russia’s combat operations in Syria – that’s a fact. The only question is the scope of its contribution. And this is another argument in favour of excluding the Russian Federation from any international formats of scientific and technological cooperation. There is no longer any distinction between civilian and military research and technology in modern Russia. If the civilized world does not want to learn these lessons, then after children’s hospitals are destroyed by Russian bombardment in Syria and Ukraine, other countries will come.
The next part of BaumankaLeaks will feature data about the “Russian contracts of the century” with India. Stay tuned.
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