The FSB and the Russian military clashed over protecting the generals, the sources said

For the second time in just over a year, an explosion occurred in the Moscow suburb of Balashikha, Russia, killing a Russian soldier.

On June 9, explosives exploded under the BMW as the driver began to pull out of the parking lot, according to Russian independent agency The Insider. The agency identified the man who was killed as Lt. Gen. Damir Davydov, a Russian Defense Ministry official responsible for supplying missiles and ammunition to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

The place was impressive. The explosion occurred at a distance of 1,150 meters from where Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate of Russia’s General Staff, was killed there by a car bomb in April 2025, according to the French newspaper Monde.

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A few months before Moskalik’s death, another Russian official was assassinated in Moscow.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces, was killed when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter exploded outside a building. A source in Ukraine’s security service, known as the SBU, told Reuters that the agency carried out the operation.

Collectively, the attacks are part of a wider pattern of assassinations and assassination attempts targeting senior Russian military personnel – a campaign that a European intelligence source says now exposes rifts within Putin’s security system.

Since Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, senior Russian military personnel have been killed in missile strikes, airstrikes, car bombings, crashes and front-line combat – a number, according to a European intelligence source, that is now fueling internal tensions between the Russian military and the FSB, Russia’s powerful domestic security service KGB and its successor.

“There are internal tensions within the Russian security agencies,” a European intelligence source told Fox News Digital. “The Russian military wants the FSB to ensure the physical protection of Russian generals, but the FSB opposes taking on military responsibility.”

The dispute reflects a deep rivalry within Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, where the security forces have a privileged position over the military, according to multiple sources.

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“This goes back to Soviet times,” a European intelligence source said. “The security forces don’t like the soldiers, and the soldiers don’t like the security forces.”

The central tension, according to European intelligence source and Russian dissident Maxim Katz, is within Putin’s own agenda: the war has raised the importance of the military on the battlefield, while the political establishment in Moscow still treats the generals as a potential threat.

The result is a paradox about the Kremlin. Russia needs its military commanders to keep the war going, but the security forces running Putin’s regime seem reluctant to take on the responsibility of protecting them.

The damaged Kia Sorento is lying at the scene where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the military training unit of the Russian General Staff, was killed by a car bomb in Moscow, Dis. 22, 2025. (Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters)

At least 15 Russian generals have been confirmed killed since the start of the all-out offensive, according to independent Russian agency Mediazona.

The toll includes five lieutenant generals, seven major generals and three former generals.

Others died far from Moscow, near 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-controlled city of Berdiansk. Maj. Gen. Sergei Goryachev, chief of staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, was killed in June 2023 during the Ukrainian offensive 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, commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, died in a military transport plane crash in Crimea in March 2026. Maj. Gen. Gen. Kanamat Botashev, who worked for the Wagner Group, was killed in May 2022 after his Su-25 was shot down in the Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

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Igor Kirillov was killed on December 17, 2024, when an explosive device hidden on a scooter went off outside a Moscow building, officials said. (AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)

The losses began in the first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, when Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of Russia, and Maj. Gen. Vladimir Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Army, was killed.

Katz said the military has long occupied a vulnerable position within the Russian power structure.

“In Russia, the FSB is the largest and most powerful security agency, and Putin himself is from that program,” Katz told Fox News Digital. “The army is always seen by these people as a threat.”

Katz said that the Kremlin has historically feared popular military figures because the military is one of the few institutions capable of challenging political power.

“You won’t find Russian soldiers in high government positions,” Katz said. “Since Stalin, they have been afraid of the army. Whenever there is a well-known army with his name, they deal with it in some way – legally, or like Prigozhin, or like other generals. In Russia, there is no such thing as a popular general.”

Katz argued that even in times of war, when the military may be expected to gain rank, Putin’s plan keeps the military politically weak.

“The military does not participate in decision-making,” said Katz. “It is subsidized now, but everything goes to the war. The generals are rich, but they are not like the ministers or the FSB people. Among the elite, they are the most deprived.”

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A view shows flowers placed on a table in front of a board with a portrait of Major General Mikhail Gudkov, deputy head of the Russian Navy, according to local authorities, who was recently killed in the Kursk region during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an exhibition of portraits of prominent Russian soldiers in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Russia, on July 3, 2025. (Tatiana Meel/Reuters)

That flexibility, Katz said, helps explain why Russian generals may not want the FSB to be responsible for their security.

“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 very quickly.”

A European intelligence source said the killing was not only important because of the operational loss, but because of the psychological effect within the Russian army.

“Putin understands that losing top Russian generals would affect morale in the Russian army, which is already low from Russia’s point of view,” the source said.

The apparent consensus, according to a European intelligence source, was to shift responsibility from the FSB.

“The FSB did not want to deal with the protection of the military, so the security service of the Russian presidential administration would take care of those generals,” the source said.

Katz said internal pressure on Putin could clash with Russia’s parliamentary elections in September – a time he believes Western observers are overlooking.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is accused of ordering the killing of dozens of critics and dissidents. ()

He said the vote will not be free, and the Kremlin is expected to change the results.

But he said if public support for Putin’s United Russia party falls sharply, it may be difficult for the regime to make official results seem credible.

Everyone already knows what results they will announce,” said Katz. “The question is whether anyone will believe those results.”

Katz said Putin’s plan has long depended not only on control, but on the idea that the Kremlin still commands broad public support.

“Putin has never ruled in a situation where he did not have a majority,” said Katz. “His legitimacy depends on everyone believing that he has the support of the majority. If everyone believes that he doesn’t have a majority, and that he didn’t just cheat a little bit but just get results, that’s a different story.”

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A portrait of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died last week in a plane crash two months after the start of the uprising, is placed on top of flowers on a grave at Porokhovskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

He compared the potential challenge to licensing systems being forced to move from managed popularity to open enforcement.

“Putin will not lose like Orban,” Katz said. “But if everyone in Russia knows that everyone voted for him and got 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 a response in time for publication.