Commentary by Konstantin Eggert
The explosion at the "Balzi Rossi" restaurant in Moscow can no longer be called a "mafia brawl" or a "gas cylinder explosion". The Russian Embassy in Rome described the incident as a “terrorist act” intended to intimidate… Italians living in Russia.
Why is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lying?
This ridiculous and false version was invented to admit the obvious - that a bomb exploded near the restaurant, but on the other hand - to not mention the person for whom it seemed to be intended. After it became clear who the injured and dead were, the assumption that 55-year-old Colonel General Alexander Chaiko was the target seems more and more justified. The commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces is a natural target for Ukrainian special services due to his position.
The fact that he commanded the troops that committed war crimes in the city of Bucha in 2022 makes Chaiko the object of special attention from Kiev. If he was the target of the assassination attempt, then his life will become much more difficult from now on. It's one thing when your security guards tell you: "You may be the target of an assassination attempt, additional precautions should be taken". However, it's quite another when you survive an assassination attempt and lose loved ones in it (if the information that his son-in-law died and his daughter was injured is true).
When choosing a military career, a person takes the possibility of death for granted. However, the commander of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union rises to another level - to the very top of the pyramid. He is surrounded by guards, aides, courtiers, limousines and dozens of other formal and informal symbols of his status. And suddenly all of this turns out to be irrelevant, because you have become a living target.
War has returned to the highest circles of Putin's regime
In the historical part of Moscow, it is difficult to find a more prestigious district than the one where the explosion occurred. The Kremlin can be reached in 30 minutes on foot. The price per square meter in the building where the restaurant is located reaches 1 million rubles.
On the day of the explosion, there was a party in the restaurant. I imagine that most of those present could easily buy an apartment in the famous Moscow building. After all, in the world in which the alleged organizer of the celebration lives, such banquets are not just gatherings of relatives, friends and colleagues, but of people who must be invited because of their social status, or people whom you want to attract around you in order to raise your image and rank. This is the top administration of Putin's dictatorship, which is essentially waging an aggressive war against Ukraine, and at the same time is profiting from it - orders, ranks or simply money.
Now, however, this "their" war is returning to them - not as an image on the screen, not as a point on the map or as an image on a smartphone. But as a clear and deadly presence in the heart of their own capital. Their adversary, as it turned out, can easily find out any details of their personal lives, just as he learned about the place and date of the banquet on August 1.
Even if the main goal of those who carried out the operation was not formally achieved, the impact of what happened on the consciousness of Putin's "elite" will undoubtedly be strong. They will not resign, they will not repent and they will not stop killing Ukrainians. Moreover, they will begin to calm down with all sorts of banalities, such as the idea that they cannot be hit a second time. They simply have no other way out. They have consciously become cogs in the ruthless bureaucratic machine, prisoners of the system that they themselves created together with Putin.
The fear that can destroy the regime
But fear will forever settle in their hearts. Even if there are no new such actions. And they will most likely be repeated - and more than once: such is the logic of war in an era when an attacker can be recruited via WhatsApp. And every time they enter a cafe in the center of Moscow, these people, with or without uniforms, will not only ask about the menu, but will also frantically try to figure out who is celebrating something at that long table. And it is this fear that will destroy the administrative killing machine that they personally created from the inside.