A senior Russian general was killed in a car bombing in Moscow on Monday, and Russian officials are investigating the possibility that Ukrainian intelligence may have been involved in the attack.
The Russian Investigative Committee said that Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of operational training at the General Staff, was killed when an explosive placed under his vehicle detonated in southern Moscow. His driver was injured, and several cars in the vicinity were also damaged.
The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, has carried out similar attacks inside Russia, but so far it has not taken credit for the car bombing. Last year, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, was killed by an explosion outside his home in Moscow, and SBU officials quickly took responsibility for the assassination.
Reporting from The Washington Post has revealed how the CIA helped build up the SBU into an intelligence force capable of carrying out assassinations behind enemy lines. The report, published in October 2023, said the CIA helped the SBU form a new unit known as the “Fifth Directorate” and trained recruits to form operatives “capable of operating behind front lines and working as covert groups.”
The SBU has also been responsible for killing civilians, including Darya Dugina, the daughter of the prominent Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin. She was killed in a car bombing outside of Moscow in August 2022.
The CIA also provided significant backing for Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as the GUR, which has also been responsible for attacks and assassinations inside Russia and Russian-controlled Ukraine. “GUR was our little baby. We gave them all new equipment and training,” a former US intelligence official told the Post.
