Russian President Vladimir Putin spent much of last week promising “victory” in his war in Ukraine.
Those claims ring increasingly hollow as more details emerge of secret funerals for one – and at one time reported as potentially two – of his top generals.
Putin New Year’s Message. Image Credit: Russian Government.
Vladimir Putin Russian President 2019. Image Credit: Kremlin.
Those reported to have been killed were victims of what was a planned assassination attempt that occurred only a short distance from the Kremlin itself.
Colonel General Aleksandr Chayko, the newly appointed commander of Russia’s Aerospace Forces (VKS), is believed to have been the main target of a deadly bombing on Saturday, 1 August.
The restaurant had been closed to the public that night for Chayko to celebrate his 55th birthday and his recent appointment as VKS commander.
The incident occurred at the exclusive Balzi Rossi restaurant in central Moscow’s Kudrinskaya Square, which is also near the US Embassy. Five persons are reported to have died in the blast, while 12 or more were wounded, including Chayko’s daughter, Maria.
Among the dead are Chayko’s son-in-law, Danylo Peredriy, the woman described as a “courier” who delivered the explosive device to the restaurant disguised as a birthday gift for Gen. Chayko, and the security guard who blocked her from gaining access to the main dining area.
The Embarrassed Kremlin Stays Silent
Since the bombing, the Kremlin has stayed largely silent on the attack.
That near-blackout on any comment has been interpreted as being due to the humiliating nature of such a high-profile assassination attempt being carried out within such close proximity to not just Putin’s office in the Kremlin, but also the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) at Lubyanka Square.
The FSB is the successor to the former KGB Second Chief Directorate that was responsible for internal security and police state surveillance of foreign nationals, dissidents and other individuals judged to be potential threats to the Soviet regime.
Putin himself was the director of the FSB prior to being Russian Prime Minister under former President Boris Yeltsin, and then later becoming Russia’s President on the eve of the year 2000.
Adding to the rather pronounced embarrassment is the fact that Putin had reportedly personally ordered additional security for Chayko weeks earlier.
Whatever those arrangements might have been, they presented no impediment to those who plotted to blow the Colonel General’s birthday party to kingdom come.
Reporting after the event stated that officers from the Federal Protective Service (FSO) had been assigned to ensure that extra layer of security for Chayko during this party, but that they had been off-duty at the time of the bombing. This was despite among the party’s attendees were senior officers at the FSO, FSB, Russian State Duma deputies, senior generals from the Ministry of Defense, and other government officials.
The Unknown Collateral Damage
Chayko himself is reported to have survived the blast, which has now been officially designated as a terrorist attack by Russian law enforcement and security authorities.
However, there is so far no confirmation on the identities of the other two of the five killed.
One of the other fatalities may have been Yulia Kirillova, who was the wife of Danylo Kirillov, a nephew of General Chayko through his wife’s side.
Data from state registers indicate that Kirillova possibly died on 4 August, which was three days after the explosion.
She has also not been seen logged into her Telegram account since 31 July.
Another victim appears to be Major General Valeriy Plokhotnyuk, who was buried on 5 August in a heavily guarded and closed ceremony held in secret at Moscow’s Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.
Another senior officer, Lieutenant General Igor Yerusalimov, was previously identified as one of the fatalities, but this report appears to have been in error.
Putin awarded Plokhotnyuk the rank of major general in 2021, when he was chief of staff of the 49th Combined Arms Army.
Previously, in 2011, Russia’s defense minister had appointed Plokhotnyuk head of the operational group of Russian forces in Transnistria.
“Whoever is behind this attack was out to not only kill Chayko, but also as many of the other higher-ups at the celebration as possible,” said a retired US intelligence official to National Security Journal. “Had the woman who was apparently unaware she was carrying a bomb been able to actually make it into the center of the dining room, the casualty list would have read like a ‘who’s who’ of Russian security officials.”
“It is beyond humiliating that Putin’s army of tens of thousands of security agents cannot stop an assassination plot in the middle of the most exclusive area of the Russian capital. It is hard to claim victory for anything under these circumstances.”
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
