Car Bomb in Moscow Kills Senior Russian General

What Happened?

A car bomb exploded in Moscow on Monday, killing Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Savrarov, making him the third senior Russian commander to be killed by a car bomb in the past twelve months. Lt General Savrorov was the head of the Russian Army’s Directorate for Operational Training and had taken part in combat operations in Ukraine, Syria, and several other locations. 

The Russian Investigative Committee issued a statement saying they suspected Ukrainian involvement in the attack, but they were still gathering and assessing the forensic evidence from the scene and that no arrests had been made as of Monday.

Why it Matters

Though Russian authorities have yet to directly attribute the attack to Ukraine, since Ukraine was behind the previous two attacks on Russian generals in Moscow, it raises the likelihood that they were behind this one. Targeting Russian generals in Moscow is likely intended as a way for Ukraine to send a message that they can strike in Russia’s capitol and force Russian military commanders to increase their security and potentially change their travel arrangements.

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From a tactical perspective, the killing of General Savrarov will change little, but it does have the potential to disrupt future gatherings of senior Russian commanders in person. While Russian commanders could easily meet virtually instead of in person, virtual meetings are more vulnerable to cyber-attack, which could enable hackers to gain access to highly classified military secrets electronically.

Russia’s Directorate for Operational Training has been leading the effort to apply lessons learned from the war in Ukraine so that Russian forces do not repeat the same mistakes. While Russia’s initial invasion suffered from many logistical and operational failures, since then, Russian forces have been steadily improving their capabilities by analyzing their mistakes and finding ways to avoid repeating them. A Ukrainian strike on the head of that organization suggests Ukraine is concerned about Russia’s improving ability to learn and apply lessons from combat to future operations.

From a political perspective, the strike is an embarrassment for Putin’s government, because the inability to protect their own military members from attack in Russia’s capitol speaks to a weakness in security and intelligence on the part of Putin’s regime.

According to Russian authorities, General Savrorov was walking by the car that exploded, but it wasn’t his vehicle, which is unusual for car bomb attacks, because that style of attack tends to use the vehicle owned by the target. That raises the possibility Savrarov may not have been the primary target, but Ukrainian forces are probably satisfied they got him anyway. 

How it Affects You

The car bomb in Moscow illustrates that the war in Ukraine shows no signs of abating despite numerous attempts at international diplomacy. Russia tends to retaliate for these kinds of attacks, which means in the coming days or weeks, a spike in drone and missile attacks on Ukraine is likely.