The U.S. government reportedly has intelligence that indicates Russia is behind a spate of bizarre attacks on American diplomats in Cuba and China. At the same time, American officials are trying to recreate the weapon the attackers might have used with help from the U.S. Air Force. If the Russian connection is true, the incidents would represent a significant escalation in the Kremlin’s already aggressive policies toward the United States, but it would also be in line with a growing number of brazen Russian acts against their opponents overseas, including the attempted assassination of a former intelligence agent in the United Kingdom. On Sept. 11, 2018, NBC News reported, citing unnamed U.S. government officials, that American intelligence agencies had unspecified communications, such as phone calls or Emails, that they had intercepted, which pointed to Russian involvement in the attacks. As of June 2018, doctors have diagnosed more than two dozen individuals with traumatic brain injuries and other serious health issues that allegedly stem from incidents involving an unknown weapon dating back to at least late 2016.

“The State Department has come to the determination that they were attacks,” Peter Bodde, who was previously U.S. Ambassador to Libya and is now in charge of the interagency task force looking into the incidents, told members of Congress earlier in September 2018. There is “no reason to believe this was anything but an intentional act,” another U.S. official separately told NBC News. U.S. officials do not feel confident enough to publicly accuse the Kremlin and the investigation has not yet reached a formal conclusion. The weapon that the attackers used, as well as how it actually injures or sickens an individual, remains undefined, at least publicly.

US State Department A worker cleans the coat of arms of the United States at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba.

On Sept. 1, 2018, The New York Times reported that doctors and scientists were more and more inclined to believe that the incidents involved some sort of high-powered microwave directed energy weapon. Research in these systems for both destructive and non-lethal applications dates back to the 1960s and continues in the United States to this day. The Soviets spent considerable resources on the development of these systems, as well. Modern day Russia has since inherited that knowledgebase. In 2014, the National Security Agency (NSA) confirmed that it had “intelligence information” regarding a “a high-powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate, or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence,” according to a statement that Washington lawyer Mark Zaid, who routinely works with clients on cases dealing with classified material, obtained and subsequently released to The Times. “The 2012 intelligence information indicated that this weapon is designed to bathe a target’s living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system.” At the time, the NSA said it had no evidence that the unnamed “hostile country” in question had or had not used this weapon against Zaid’s client. It was unclear whether the agency had information to confirm or deny whether it even existed, either.

NSA via Mark Zaid via The New York Times Statement from the NSA regarding a potentially lethal microwave weapon given to lawyer Mark Zaid.