Vladlen Tatarsky (Maxim Fomin)

Force in Play

Killed by bomb in St. Petersburg café, April 2023

A car bomb killed Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov in southern Moscow on December 22, 2025—the latest in a series of targeted assassinations of Russian military officials. Sarvarov, who headed the training department within Russia's general staff, was blown up in the capital city itself, a brazen escalation of Ukraine's shadow war behind Russian lines. Two days later, another bombing in the same Moscow district killed two police officers and the attacker, raising questions about whether the incidents are connected.

Updated May 16