Putin Reveals Command of Elite Senezh SOF Unit During Christmas Visit

Vladimir Putin celebrated Christmas for the third time in the company of military personnel – this time at an SOF military facility in the Moscow region – effectively exposing the leadership of the elite unit of the Senezh Special Operations Center.

Unlike in previous years, the Kremlin did not disclose the specific church the president attended, referring only to “one of the churches dedicated to St. George the Victorious,” according to a report by Agency News on X.

OSINT analysis later confirmed that the Christmas service took place at the Church of the Great Martyr St. George the Victorious located on the grounds of the Senezh Special Operations Center, military unit No. 92154, in Solnechnogorsk, Moscow region.

Standing next to Putin during the service was the unit’s commander, Major General Aleksey Galkin of the SOF. Galkin is a Hero of Russia and heads one of the key units within the SOF Special Tasks Department.

Galkin is known for his involvement in the Chechen wars, for receiving the title of Hero of Russia in 2002, and for personally delivering to Vladimir Putin materials later used by the Kremlin to justify the war in the North Caucasus.

Based on data leaks and image analysis, those present likely also included SOF Colonels Andrey Popov and Konstantin Maslyanko – both Heroes of Russia and figures linked to the Senezh Center’s command structure.

The Security Service of Ukraine previously identified Konstantin Maslyanko as being involved in the preparation of a terrorist attack in central Kyiv in 2014 and in organizing an explosion at a Ukrainian checkpoint in the Luhansk region in 2015.

The Senezh Special Purpose Center has been cited in investigations by Western intelligence services as a unit involved in sabotage operations outside Russia, including DHL parcel bombings in Europe and the planning of an assassination attempt against the head of Rheinmetall.

Militarnyi previously provided detailed coverage of the center’s infrastructure, as well as the elimination of certain officers and the failure of operations carried out by units linked to Senezh Center during combat operations in Ukraine.

On the eve of the service, a Kremlin pool correspondent admitted that the event would be difficult to cover because “some of those present cannot be shown.” However, Putin’s public participation effectively lifted this informal veil.

As a result, the Christmas service became not only a symbolic gesture but also a de facto public disclosure of the command structure of one of the most secretive and combat-ready units of Russia’s SOF.

Recently, Lukashenko also “gave away” what the Oreshnik system looks like.