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Attack that injured Rogozin in the Ukraine also killed two

Dmitry Rogozin playing soldier in the Ukraine
Dmitry Rogozin playing make-believe soldier
recently in the Ukraine

More details have now emerged about the explosion that injured former Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin, including the fact that the attack, in Ukrainian occupied territory in Donetsk, also killed two.

The former head of Russia’s space agency was wounded when an artillery shell exploded as he celebrated his birthday in a hotel near the front line in Ukraine. Dmitry Rogozin, a flamboyant Russian politician who was once a deputy prime minister, was reportedly hit in the buttocks, head and back by shrapnel.

Two people were killed in the attack and several others were wounded, authorities in Donetsk said on Thursday, and Mr Rogozin said he was due to be operated on. Russian state news channel Rossiya 24 TV said the former space chief was celebrating his 59th birthday at the Shesh-Besh hotel and restaurant with several other separatist officials.

But Mr Rogozin insisted the incident took place during a “work meeting”.

Russian investigators think the shell came from a French-made Caesar self-propelled howitzer.

The criticism of Rogozin concerning this story has been quite ugly.

“A party 10 kilometres away from the front line with the Ceasar’s range of 40 kilometres? I would reprimand him for being childish,” [wrote Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent pro-Kremlin blogger.] “Two people have died in that restaurant, which, I think, is on his conscience.”

Rogozin’s path has been steadily downward since he was deputy prime minister of Russia’s defense department from 2011 to 2018. First he was demoted to head of Roscosmos, where he ended up losing Russia more than a half billion in income by his cancellation of the launch contract with OneWeb. Worse, that cancellation, and Rogozin’s confiscation of 36 OneWeb satellites, ended any chance of Russia getting any international business for years to come.

These actions caused him to be fired from Roscosmos in July, and shipped to the Ukraine (the modern equivalent of Siberia) to act as an envoy in the Russian-occupied territories. Once there, he did nothing to enhance his reputation. By holding this very public birthday party, at a public place so close to the front lines, was almost guaranteeing he and his party would be attacked.

I wish he quickly recovers from his injuries, but I also think Putin would be foolish to give this guy any further positions of authority.

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15 comments

  • Col Beausabre

    Of course, he was hit in the butt, it’s a target too big to miss. Only thing bigger is his mouth. Now we will have to endure hearing about how he was “wounded in the service of the Rodina”

  • John hare

    Is it a position of authority to draw fire so others can target the source? Usually reserved for idiot officers surplus to the needs.

  • pzatchok

    He is lucky Putin made him an officer.
    He could have been made an artillery sergeant and forced to spend his days out on the field in a target zone.

  • Andrew_W

    Hopefully Putin will appreciate his heroism and put him in charge of an armored division.

  • It looks like Rogozin will have to descend the ladder until he reaches his Peter Principle level: that is, the lowest position at which he is incompetent.

  • John hare

    I’m not familiar with the Russian hierarchy Blair. If Rogozin reaches buck private, what lower is available to reach his lowest level of incompetence?

  • Dave

    I have been perceiving a very old style (modern era) bravado, a tough guy bully, from many corners of this Russian project (this Ukraine land grab). Rogozin seems exemplary of it, with the boasting, the posturing. Il Duce reincarnated? But the ultimate price of this chest beating, has it yet been paid? They are smoking in a room full of gasoline.

    In contrast, Europe is mostly tamed following WWII, and at a huge cost. And American leadership. It shows a path to a more peaceful future. Yet the Russian leadership rejects this path. Not just their actions but with their nonsense rhetoric. And we will all pay another price for it.

    There’s something very psychological going on here. Diseased minds, untreated. I don’t see how this ends well.

  • Col Beausabre

    “Hopefully Putin will appreciate his heroism and put him in charge of an armored division.”

    He wouldn’t fit inside a Russian tank. Speaking as an old armor officer, who has squeezed himself into captured vehicles (courtesy of our friends around the world), Mr Four feet wide by four feet deep won’t make it.

  • Col Beausabre

    “If Rogozin reaches buck private, what lower is available to reach his lowest level of incompetence?” Permanent latrine orderly

  • sippin_bourbon

    I have wondered if he was not put into this position, with it’s inherent risks, on purpose.

  • Mark

    Blair, I don’t think we can apply the Peter principle to Rogozin anymore since his “Broomstick” was allegedly shot off and surgery does not look promising according to Eric Berger aka “The War Criminal” :-)

    https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace

  • pzatchok

    From what i understand, and the Col should correct me, The Russian Army inherited the rank system from the soviets.
    They did not technically have sergeants, just enlisted and officers. And the officers were just the enlisted who asked to re-enlist and were accepted.
    No real officer training schools and no professional NCO class. Officers filled that class and were in charge of the direct training of the new conscripts.

    I tend to think this style is what led to the faltering advances of Russia in the beginning and now the fall backs.

  • Jeff Wright

    Dave

    Lots of Russians were war children. You see what fatherlessness does in the city—here it is a whole nation. Putin was never a friend of space. Folks who likely hated him made Ukraine his Kolyma—where folks there hate him more.

    You all might remember the Deep Space Nine episode “Duet,” where you had someone trying a bit too hard to be the villain….or Colonel Nicholson from BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI.

    I wonder if you have a bit of each in him.

    This is his role…a Slavic Falstaff…and perhaps he has simply resigned himself to his fate. The fool to Putin’s Lear—but that gives Putin too much credit.

    Rogozin probably wants a quick death.

    Putin raided his space program. I remember Rogozin lamenting how he wished the oligarchs there were like Musk.

    That likely sealed his fate.

    Imagine if we had sent Von Braun to ‘Nam.

    Pitiful.

  • wayne

    Question:
    What became of all the Political Officers that kept the military in line?

    Enemy at the Gates (2001)
    https://youtu.be/2IQJY5SsJ64?t=72

  • Jeff Wright

    The one in that film at least died well. I love that movie.

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