Putin spends Christmas with intelligence officers at secret military base near Moscow

Russian leader Vladimir Putin spent Christmas, which is celebrated in Russia on 6-7 January, with military personnel at a church located on the grounds of a military unit operated by Russian military intelligence GRU in the Moscow region. For the first time in three years, the Kremlin did not officially disclose where Putin was during the holiday.

Source: analysis by Russian media outlet Agentstvo

Details: Agentstvo established Putin's location by analysing video footage released by the Kremlin.

They found that the church is located on the grounds of a GRU military unit in the Moscow region. The analysis indicates that it is the Church of St George the Victorious on the territory of the Senezh Special Purpose Centre, military unit No. 92154, in Solnechnogorsk.

Putin also delivered a speech inside the church immediately after the service.

Quote from Putin: "We very often call the Lord the saviour, because he once came to earth to save all people. And so wars, Russia's wars, are always carried out on the Lord's instruction, fulfilling this very mission – the defence of the Motherland and its people, the salvation of the Motherland and its people."

Details: Aleksei Galkin, commander of the military unit, stood closer to Putin than other personnel in the video and photos.

Another participant in the Christmas service was reportedly Andrei Popov, a colonel and a Hero of Russia who, judging by leaked information, is also a serviceman from unit No. 92154.

The third was Konstantin Maslyanko, a colonel and Hero of Russia. According to leaked information, he served in military unit No. 45807, also part of the GRU, in 2017. Ukraine's Security Service has identified him as a person who planned a terrorist attack in central Kyiv in 2014 and organised an explosion at a Ukrainian Armed Forces checkpoint near Luhansk in 2015.

Officially, the Kremlin said that Putin attended a Christmas service at "one of the churches of St George the Victorious in the Moscow region".

In previous years, in 2023 and 2024, the Kremlin specified exactly which churches Putin attended.

The Kremlin did not explain why it did not name the church this time.

The journalists also noted that military unit No. 92154 has only recently been mentioned in the news, when an officer from the unit, Yuri Sizov, was identified as the handler of a Ukrainian accused of organising railway explosions in Poland.

In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Senezh Special Purpose Centre, which is part of the GRU's Department of Special Tasks, is involved in sabotage operations in the West.

Western intelligence agencies believe this unit is responsible for parcel explosions at DHL warehouses in Europe and for preparing an assassination attempt on the chief executive of Rheinmetall.

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