The Russian general of the Bucha massacre survives a bomb attack in the center of Moscow

MoscowA terrorist attack in the heart of Moscow has once again set off alarms among the Russian army's top brass. On Saturday evening, a bomb exploded at the entrance of a luxury restaurant where General Aleksandr Tchaikovsky was celebrating his fifty-fifth birthday. He and the guests from the political and military elite with him escaped unharmed, but five patrons of the establishment died and 19 more were injured, some of them in critical condition.

According to various Russian media outlets, a woman carrying what appeared to be a gift tried to access the restaurant's terrace, but a security guard stopped her because he found it suspicious. At that moment, someone remotely detonated the device, loaded with a kilogram of TNT and shrapnel, killing them both instantly, as well as a third person. The other two victims died in hospital this Sunday. It is most likely that the person in charge of delivering the package did not know that an explosive was hidden inside the box.

The target of the failed attack, General Tchaikovsky, was not only celebrating his birthday but also his appointment, a few months ago, as commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation. Although no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, it has emerged that Tchaikovsky had led the troops of the Eastern Military District, responsible for war crimes in Bucha, a town in the Kyiv region where 400 civilians were murdered at the beginning of the war.The general had organized the party at Balzi Rossi, a very exclusive Italian restaurant at the foot of one of the most emblematic skyscrapers built at the end of Stalinism, the so-called Seven Sisters. Initially, Russian state media spread the story that the explosion had been caused by a gas leak in the kitchen, but the chef quickly denied it.

The attacks against Russian commanders in Moscow are a very delicate issue that worries Vladimir Putin. Some media outlets claim that the restaurant was armored by agents of the Federal Security Service (FSO), the body that ensures the security of high-ranking state officials, while others limit themselves to talking about a private guard. Numerous military personnel, members of the secret services, and deputies attended the evening.

The general's irresponsibility

The Kremlin has not commented on the attack, but channels in the warmongering orbit are outraged by what they consider an irresponsible act by the general and his entourage. They criticize that the celebration took place and that Ukrainian intelligence could allegedly have found out all the information about the event. "Our people cannot understand that there is a war and that we are all possible targets. The uniformed elitists not only have barbecues at their dachas, but they also get a luxury restaurant closed for them," writes the blogger Anastasia Kaishvarova.

A few months ago, the Russian president ordered that the protection of his generals in the capital be strengthened because Ukrainian special services were managing to attack them too easily. In June, a colonel died when his car exploded on the outskirts of Moscow, while in February the deputy head of Russian military intelligence survived an assassination attempt by a messenger who had managed to access his home portal. The last general killed in the city by a Ukrainian bomb was Fanil Sarvarov in December last year. In any case, Saturday's attack is the one that occurred in a more central location, next to the United States embassy.