Russian President Vladimir Putin's drive to project "normalcy" in Moscow may have created a dangerous security blind spot, giving adversaries like Ukraine greater opportunities to target the Kremlin's military elite, an analyst said Monday.
The assessment came after a deadly explosion ripped through an upscale Moscow restaurant on Aug. 1, where a senior Russian general was reportedly attending a private celebration. Several Russian media outlets claimed the bombing targeted Col. Gen. Alexander Chaiko, who led the troops that made a botched attempt to storm the Ukrainian capital in 2022 and recently was appointed the chief of Russia’s aerospace forces. The claims could not be independently verified.
If Chaiko was indeed at the restaurant, "that would establish a compelling motive for Ukraine," Dr. Mark Episkopos, a Eurasia research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Fox News Digital. "But there has been an ongoing discourse inside Russia that, despite numerous such attacks, Russian elites and even military figures continue to flout [operational security] best practices by holding parties like this in the first place."
The Russian Embassy in Rome accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack and said in a statement Aug. 2 that the attack was "evidence that the Ukrainian terrorist contagion is already beginning to spread."
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"The other factor here is that Putin has done his best to preserve a sense of ‘normalcy’ in Moscow and St. Petersburg, cultivating a facade of stability that Ukraine has been able to exploit," Episkopos added.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said an unidentified woman carried an improvised explosive device to the Balzi Rossi restaurant. The committee said the woman was stopped by security before the bomb was detonated near the restaurant's entrance. The Russian Embassy in Rome on Monday said five people were killed and 19 were injured in the attack.
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"This particular event did seem to have a substantial level of security, which is why the person carrying the explosive was reportedly stopped and questioned at the entrance," Episkopos noted.
Russian investigators suggested the courier may not have known she was transporting explosives and said the device was detonated remotely.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin condemned the "brutal terrorist attack," vowing that those responsible would be punished, according to Deutsche Welle.
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"The means by which this attack was executed — a remotely detonated explosive device delivered on-site by a civilian — are also consistent with other assassinations deep inside Russian territory previously attributed to Ukraine," Episkopos said.
"These include those of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and others," he said.
Ukraine had not publicly commented on the restaurant bombing as of Monday afternoon, and no group had claimed responsibility.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has repeatedly accused Kyiv of targeting senior military officers, pro-war figures and Russian-installed officials.
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Episkopos noted that Kyiv has increasingly used unconventional tactics to offset Russia's superiority in conventional manpower and firepower.
"Ukraine has pioneered a new style of asymmetric warfare that plays to its strengths and Russia's weaknesses — relatively porous borders and vast territory that's difficult to monitor, let alone defend," he said. "Ukraine's interior is smaller and comparatively better controlled, and the intelligence it receives from Western partners plays a role here."
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Episkopos added: "This makes operations like this more difficult to pull off. Russia has generally relied on its advantage in raw firepower to conduct airstrikes, as opposed to covert assassinations, against high-value Ukrainian targets."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
