A Federal Bureau of Investigations agent came down with an apparent case of Havana syndrome—a mystery ailment that has affected U.S. agents and diplomats—after interrogating a suspected Russian spy.
The details of yet another case of the condition were revealed in a joint-investigation published by independent Russian outlet The Insider, CBS' 60 Minutes and German news website Der Spiegel, which linked at least some cases to covert Russian intelligence activity.
The latest revelation has drawn further attention to the mysterious and debilitating condition, first known to have affected U.S. embassy staff in Cuba, the Russian government's role in it—and the apparent lack of public U.S. response to it.
The investigation, citing a combination of public records and statements from unnamed sources, focuses on the mysterious figure of Vitalii Kovalev, a Florida chef exposed as an undercover Russian government agent, and the federal agents tasked with investigating him in the U.S.
It forms part of a wider report on the mystery of Havana syndrome, which was first identified by officials at the U.S. embassy in Havana in 2016. The new bombshell investigation claims that the first cases may actually have been recorded in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2014.
Those affected by the condition report a range of symptoms, including memory loss, problems with hearing and insomnia, as well as displaying evidence of what appears to be brain injury.
More than 1,000 people in the U.S. and elsewhere are thought to have been affected by Havana syndrome, which U.S. intelligence officially terms "anomalous health incidents."
The investigation offers an account of Kovalev's arrest in Florida following a 15-minute high-speed car chase and of what ensued after that. Kovalev spent 26 months in jail in Florida, from June 2020 to August 2022, according to public records cited by the publications, attracting the FBI's attention.
During the six months after his arrest, FBI agents spent about 80 hours interviewing him, with one Russia intelligence-focussed FBI agent, whom the publication simply refers to as Carrie (so as not to reveal the real identity of an active FBI official), claiming to have suffered debilitating symptoms some time after interviewing Kovalev.
"All of a sudden, it was like somebody flipped a switch, and bam, inside my right ear, it was like a dentist drilling on steroids," Carrie told Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes. "It was like a high pitched, metallic drilling noise, and it knocked me forward at, like, a 45-degree angle this way. Immediately [I] felt pressure, and pressure and pain started coursing from inside my right ear, down my jaw, down my neck, and into my chest, while that sound was concentrated inside my right ear."
The agent also claimed to have been affected a second time about a year later, after moving to a new posting in California, and is still suffering debilitating symptoms to this day.
"I assess that I was targeted—because I pissed off the wrong people for doing what I was doing," Carrie said in the interview. "And all I was doing was my job and trying to protect my country."
According to 60 Minutes' sources, Kovalev was advised by U.S. officials against returning to Russia, but went back anyway, with the trail going cold at the end of 2022—until his death was announced by his family on social media on March 1, 2023, just over a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Western media and security experts have long-suspected some form of directed energy or acoustic weapon as a possible explanation for Havana syndrome.
While there is no conclusive proof that its symptoms are caused by some sort of high-tech weapon—or indeed that Russia is behind it— the latest investigation claims to have "uncovered documentary evidence that Unit 29155 has been experimenting with exactly the kind of weaponized technology experts suggest is a plausible cause for the mysterious medical condition."
The clandestine unit of the Russian intelligence agency, GRU, has been linked in the report to "non-lethal acoustic weapons," with operatives supposedly being "geolocated to places around the world just before or at the time of reported anomalous health incidents."
Still, a study published by the National Institutes of Health in March offered no further insight into the causes of Havana syndrome. In March 2023, a U.S. intelligence investigation concluded that it was "very unlikely" that a foreign adversary was behind the symptoms.
But these statements have attracted renewed criticism in light of recent revelations, with current and former U.S. security officials and military experts, including former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, questioning the handling of the issue and the muted response to what they suspect is another Russian threat.
Newsweek has reached out for comment to the FBI, the State Department and the Russian Defense Ministry via email.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Yevgeny Kuklychev is Newsweek's London-based Senior Editor for Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe. He previously headed Newsweek's Misinformation Watch and ... Read more
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