^Jones, Bruce. New Russian military intelligence chief appointed. Jane's Defence Weekly. 2016-02-04 [2018-11-22]. （原始内容存档于2016-12-29）. The appointment comes one month after the sudden death of Lt Gen Korobov's predecessor at the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye), General Igor Dmitrievich Sergun. Prior to the appointment, Lt Gen Korobov was a first deputy director within the organisation, responsible for strategic intelligence. He also acted as caretaker leader after Gen Sergun's death.
^Galeotti, Mark. What Putin’s Security Appointments Say About How Russia Works. War on the Rocks. 2016-02-09 [2018-11-22]. （原始内容存档于2016-12-29）. From the first, it was clear that all the main stakeholders — Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff Valeri Gerasimov, and the GRU hierarchy itself — favored the promotion of one of Sergun’s depties: Vyacheslav Kondrashev, Sergei Sizunov, Igor Lelin, and Igor Korobov. Of them all, Korobov, head of the Strategic Intelligence Directorate (USR: Upravlenie strategicheskoi razvedky) was clearly the front-runner.
