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Russian generals’ assassinations expose growing rift inside Putin’s security apparatus
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For the second time in little more than a year, a blast tore through the Moscow suburb of Balashikha, Russia, and left a Russian military figure dead.
On June 9, explosives planted under a BMW detonated as the driver began leaving a parking lot, according to independent Russian outlet The Insider. The outlet identified the man killed as Lt. Gen. Damir Davydov, a Russian Defense Ministry official responsible for supplying missiles and artillery ammunition to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.
The location was striking. The explosion occurred roughly 1,150 feet from the site where Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate of Russia’s General Staff, was killed in a car bombing in April 2025, according to the French newspaper Le Monde.
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A screen grab from a video shows the car in which Russian Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik was killed, confirmed by Russia’s Investigative Committee, on April 25, 2025, in the Moscow region. (Russian Investigative Committee / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Months before Moskalik’s death, another senior Russian officer was assassinated in Moscow.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops, was killed when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter exploded outside an apartment building. A source in Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, told Reuters the agency carried out the operation.
Together, the attacks are part of a broader pattern of assassinations and attempted assassinations targeting senior Russian military figures — a campaign that a European intelligence source says is now exposing tensions inside Putin’s own security system.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, senior Russian military figures have been killed in missile strikes, drone attacks, car bombings, crashes and frontline combat — a toll that, according to a European intelligence source, is now fueling internal tensions between Russia’s military and the FSB, Russia’s powerful domestic security service and successor to the Soviet KGB.
«There are internal frictions between Russian security institutions,» a European intelligence source told Fox News Digital. «The Russian military wants the FSB to guarantee physical protection for Russian generals, but the FSB is opposed to taking responsibility for the military.»
The dispute reflects a deeper rivalry inside Russian President Vladimir Putin’s system, where the security services have long held a privileged position over the armed forces, according to multiple sources.
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«This goes back to Soviet times,» the European intelligence source said. «The security services do not like the military, and the military does not like the security services.»
The central tension, according to the European intelligence source and Russian opposition figure Maxim Katz, is inside Putin’s own system: the war has elevated the importance of the military on the battlefield, while the political structure in Moscow still treats generals as a potential threat.
The result is a paradox for the Kremlin. Russia needs its military commanders to sustain the war, but the security services that dominate Putin’s system appear reluctant to take responsibility for protecting them.
The damaged Kia Sorento lies at the scene where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff’s army operational training directorate, was killed in a car bomb in Moscow, Dec. 22, 2025. (Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters)
At least 15 Russian generals have been confirmed killed since the full-scale invasion began, according to independent Russian outlet Mediazona.
The toll includes five lieutenant generals, seven major generals and three former generals.
Some died far from Moscow, closer to the battlefield.
Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, deputy commander of Russia’s Southern Military District, was killed in July 2023 in a Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile strike on the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk. Maj. Gen. Sergei Goryachev, chief of staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, was killed in June 2023 during Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zavadsky, deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps, was killed near Krynky in southern Ukraine in November 2023.
Others were struck inside Russia or in Russian-controlled territory.
Lt. Gen. Alexander Otroshchenko, a senior Russian air force commander, died in a military transport plane crash over occupied Crimea in March 2026. Retired Maj. Gen. Kanamat Botashev, flying for the Wagner Group, was killed in May 2022 after his Su-25 was shot down over Ukraine’s Luhansk region.
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Igor Kirillov was killed Dec. 17, 2024, when an explosive device hidden in a scooter went off outside a building in Moscow, officials said. (AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)
The losses began in the opening weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, when Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of Russia’s 41st Combined Arms Army, and Maj. Gen. Vladimir Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Army, were killed.
Katz said the military has long occupied a vulnerable position inside the Russian power structure.
«In Russia, the FSB is the biggest and most powerful security organization, and Putin himself comes from that system,» Katz told Fox News Digital. «The army, on the other hand, has always been viewed by these people as a threat.»
Katz said the Kremlin historically has feared popular military figures because the army is one of the few institutions with the capacity to challenge political power.
«You will not find Russian military men in senior government positions,» Katz said. «Since Stalin, they have been afraid of the army. Whenever there is a relatively well-known military figure with a name of his own, they deal with it somehow — legally, or like with Prigozhin, or like with other generals. In Russia, there is no such thing as a popular general.»
Katz argued that even during wartime, when the military might be expected to gain status, Putin’s system keeps the army politically weak.
«The army does not take part in decision-making,» Katz said. «It is funded now, but everything goes to the war. The generals are rich, but not like ministers or FSB people. Among the elites, they are the most deprived.»
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A view shows flowers placed on a table in front of a board with a photograph of Maj. Gen. Mikhail Gudkov, who, according to local authorities, was recently killed in the Kursk region amid Russia-Ukraine conflict, during an exhibition of soldiers’ portraits in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Russia, July 3, 2025. (Tatiana Meel/Reuters)
That dynamic, Katz said, helps explain why Russian generals may not want the FSB responsible for their protection.
«For them, the FSB is a much bigger threat than the Ukrainian army,» Katz said. «The Ukrainian army kills a general once in a while. The FSB puts generals in prison much faster.»
The European intelligence source said the killings matter not only because of the operational losses, but because of the psychological effect inside the Russian army.
«Putin understands that losing prominent Russian generals can affect morale within the Russian army, which is already low from the Russian perspective,» the source said.
The apparent compromise, according to the European intelligence source, was to shift responsibility away from the FSB.
«The FSB did not want to deal with military protection, so the security service of the Russian presidential administration would take care of those generals,» the source said.
Katz said the internal pressure on Putin may also collide with Russia’s parliamentary elections in September — a moment he believes Western observers are largely ignoring.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has been blamed for ordering numerous assassinations of critics and defectors. ( )
He said the vote will not be free, and the Kremlin is expected to manipulate the results.
But he argued that if public support for Putin’s United Russia party has fallen sharply, it may become harder for the regime to make the official results appear believable.
«Everyone already knows what results they will announce,» Katz said. «The question is whether anyone will believe those results.»
Katz said Putin’s system has long depended not only on control, but on the perception that the Kremlin still commands broad public support.
«Putin has never ruled in a situation where he does not have a majority,» Katz said. «His legitimacy rests on everyone believing that he has majority support. Once everyone believes he does not have a majority, and that he did not just cheat a little but simply drew the results, that is a different story.»
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A portrait of Wagner Group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash two months after launching his brief rebellion, lies on flowers on the grave at the Porokhovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
He compared the potential challenge to authoritarian systems that are forced to move from managed popularity to open coercion.
«Putin cannot lose like Orban,» Katz said. «But if everyone in Russia knows that everyone voted against him and he drew the results in his favor, that would be a new situation. He has never been in that position before.»
Fox News Digital reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian governments for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication.
russia, vladimir putin, ukraine, wars
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FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., has a plan to snuff out a multibillion-dollar global industry.
Scott is one of several Republicans racing to ram birthright citizenship tweaks through Congress after the Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling blocking the Trump administration’s effort to limit the right and President Donald Trump’s call for lawmakers to quickly respond.
Despite an increasingly crowded field of legislation, Scott argued in an interview with Fox News Digital that his approach to halt birth tourism could work, even with Democrats.
TRUMP SUFFERS MAJOR SUPREME COURT DEFEAT AS JUSTICES UPHOLD BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., arrives for a vote in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
«The whole concept of the 14th Amendment, that ‘under the jurisdiction thereof,’ if you are on vacation in America, you certainly should not have a child while you’re here and think in any way, shape or form that kid is going to somehow, some way be an American citizen,» Scott said.
«That’s just illogical. I would just say look at it from the mirror perspective,» he continued. «If you did that in any other country, would that child in that country become a citizen of that country? The answer is no.»
Scott’s legislation, which is still being drafted, would target tourism visas and any child born in the U.S. to a woman with said visa from becoming an American citizen.
REPUBLICAN ACCUSES SCOTUS OF BETRAYING US, PUSHES BILL RESTRICTING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, PREGNANT VISITORS
His legislation is «designed specifically to get to the president’s desk to sign into law,» a tacit acknowledgment that in the Senate, he will need Democratic support to put a dent into the issue.
«That means that Democrats cannot have any opposition to this notion that thousands of companies having hundreds of thousands of women come to this country to have a baby so that they leave with an American citizen,» Scott said.
«We should break that whole cycle, destroy it in its infancy by not allowing it to exist at all,» he continued. «And that to me is the best approach.»
Scott is one of several Republicans racing to ram birthright citizenship tweaks through Congress. (iStock)
Trump said he would prefer legislation over a «long and unwieldy» constitutional amendment, which has been floated by a handful of Senate Republicans, including Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Tackling the 14th Amendment completely is something Scott said he’d do, but he acknowledged that it’s not «possible in the current political environment.»
«What is possible is for us to recognize that if you’re here temporarily, and you know you’re here temporarily, you should not leave with an American citizen as your child just because you gave birth on our soil,» Scott said.
Meanwhile, in the House, there’s another approach led by Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn.
Ogles, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, unveiled legislation Wednesday that would allow the government to bar pregnant foreigners from entering the United States.
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The Tennessee Republican says the measure, dubbed the Anchors Away Act, is necessary to crack down on the birth tourism industry, in which foreigners give birth on U.S. soil so that their children obtain U.S. citizenship.
However, the legislation faces steep obstacles to clearing Congress, and it is unclear whether the bill would get a floor vote in the House amid Republicans’ razor-thin majority.
«This is a conversation that I’m starting that I’m a champion of,» Ogles told Fox News Digital in an interview. «I’m working with the White House. And as long as it takes to get it done, I’ll be here to fight for it.»
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Ogles has also authored the Assimilation Act, legislation that would impose vast changes to the legal immigration system by ending birthright citizenship, requiring employers to implement E-Verify and scrapping the green-card lottery, among other provisions. The Tennessee lawmaker’s recently introduced Remigration Act would allow the government to denaturalize individuals convicted of certain crimes, including defrauding the government.
«What we’ve seen over the last several decades is that Congress, quite frankly, has delegated its right to legislate to the Supreme Court,» Ogles said. «So this actually creates the opportunity for Congress to do its job. To define what it is to be a naturalized citizen, to define who can and cannot come into this country, because as the legislative body, we are the ones that are supposed to make those decisions.»
politics, immigration, republicans elections, congress, legislation
INTERNACIONAL
Desafío al Vaticano: los “lefebvrianos” ordenaron cuatro nuevos obispos y tensaron la relación con el papa León XIV
La Fraternidad San Pío X consagró este miércoles por su cuenta a cuatro nuevos obispos en una ceremonia en Suiza. Se trata de un acto “cismático”, según el papa León XIV, que pidió a esta comunidad tradicionalista que renunciara a su proyecto.
En una ceremonia en la pradera suiza de Écône, adonde asistieron miles de fieles de todo el mundo, la comunidad consagró a cuatro obispos: dos franceses, un estadounidense y un suizo.
El superior general de la comunidad, el sacerdote Davide Pagliarani, dijo en su homilía que se trataba de un día “histórico”.
“Dios me trajo acá”
Luz Dussan, una fiel colombiana de 57 años, viajó desde Estados Unidos para la ceremonia.
“Pensé que nunca en la vida viviría esto, pero mira, Dios me trajo acá”, declaró.
El padre Pascal Schreiber, la la izquierda, y el padre Michael Goldade llegan a su consagración como obispos en una carpa ante el seminario de la Fraternidad Sacerdotal San Pío X, en Écône, Suiza, el miércoles 1 de julio de 2026. (AP Foto/Baz Ratner)
“No importa lo que digan los demás del mundo. Estoy feliz de lo que ha hecho la fraternidad, de verdad que se merecen los cuatro obispos, porque realmente estamos creciendo. La comunidad latina sobre todo está creciendo en la fraternidad”, agregó.
Al seguir adelante sin la aprobación del pontífice, los dos obispos con que contaba la comunidad y los cuatro obispos consagrados en la jornada quedan de hecho excomulgados de la Iglesia católica romana.
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Sin embargo, al inicio de la ceremonia, el secretario general de la sociedad, Foucault Leroux, dijo que ellos consideraban “que todas las penas y censuras (…) son nulas y sin efecto”.
Quiénes son los “lefebvrianos”
La comunidad, fundada en 1970 por el obispo francés Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), agrupa a unos 600.000 fieles, según estimaciones, que se rigen por una interpretación estricta de la tradición doctrinal y litúrgica.
Rechaza en su conjunto los avances de la Iglesia desde el Concilio Vaticano II (en la década de 1960), defiende un modelo de sociedad patriarcal y un ideal de Estado teocrático.
“Para mantener la fe, ¿acaso estamos rompiendo con la Iglesia? Este dilema es falso. Pertenecemos a la Iglesia, en primer lugar por la fe, por la profesión integral de la fe de la Iglesia”, afirmó Pagliarani.
La misa de consagración, de cuatro horas y enteramente en latín, se organizó al aire libre en la pradera de Écône, en el mismo lugar donde Lefebvre consagró a los primeros cuatro obispos de su comunidad, en 1988.
En la ceremonia, los cuatro sacerdotes yacían boca abajo en el suelo mientras se cantaba la Letanía de los Santos, antes de recibir la imposición de manos del obispo, el momento clave, seguido de la unción.
“Nada cismático”
Para el Vaticano, consagrar a un obispo sin el acuerdo del papa es un acto de insubordinación directa que conlleva la excomunión automática de los obispos y constituye un “acto cismático”.
“Les suplico desde el fondo de mi corazón: ¡reconsideren su decisión!”, escribió recientemente León XIV en una carta dirigida a Pagliarani, superior general de la Fraternidad.
En su misiva, el papa advirtió que, en caso de cisma, los sacramentos, como el matrimonio o la confesión, administrados por los obispos dejarían de ser reconocidos por la Iglesia católica.
“No es un acto de rebelión: es un acto que nace del amor por la Iglesia”, dijo el sacerdote Michel Rion, profesor de Teología en el seminario de Écône.
“No hay absolutamente nada cismático o contrario a la Iglesia en nuestras acciones. Esperamos que llegue el día en el que el papa vea esto. Para nosotros, ser cismáticos es lo peor que podría ocurrir, preferiríamos morir a ser cismáticos”, insistió.
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En 1988 el papa Juan Pablo II hizo un llamado similar a la Fraternidad para disuadirla de ordenar nuevos obispos. Fue en vano. La ordenación provocó una excomunión inmediata, que fue levantada en 2009 por Benedicto XVI.
La comunidad afirma estar presente en más de 75 países de seis continentes, con más de 750 sacerdotes.
La Fraternidad San Pío X es influyente en ciertos círculos conservadores, y cuenta hoy día con 751 sacerdotes, 264 seminaristas y cerca de 800 lugares de culto repartidos por 77 países.
No obstante, es muy minoritaria dentro del catolicismo, que cuenta con más de 1.300 millones de fieles en todo el mundo.
(Con información de AFP)
Vaticano, papa León XIV
INTERNACIONAL
One crew member missing after US Navy helicopter makes emergency landing in Arabian Sea
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A U.S. Navy MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier made an emergency water landing in the Arabian Sea early Wednesday, leaving one crew member missing.
The incident happened at about 3:30 a.m. ET, according to the U.S. 5th Fleet.
Three of the helicopter’s four crew members were successfully recovered and are currently in stable condition aboard the George H.W. Bush, officials said.
FILE – In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) transits the Strait of Hormuz as an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter from the Nightdippers of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 5 lifts off from the flight deck. (Stephanie Contreras/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
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U.S. Navy assets in the region are actively conducting search and rescue operations for the remaining crew member, who has not yet been publicly identified.
Military officials said there is no indication the emergency landing was the result of «hostile action.»
FILE – In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, sailors assigned to an explosive ordnance unit board an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter on the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to head to an oil tanker that was attacked off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea on Friday, July 30, 2021.
EIGHT BELIEVED DEAD AFTER B-52 CRASHES SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF FROM EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE
The cause of the incident is currently under investigation.
FILE – In this May 19, 2019 photo, an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter transports cargo from the fast combat support ship USNS Arctic to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a replenishment-at-sea operation in the Arabian Sea.
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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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