Three people are dead, and 21 are injured following a blast near a restaurant in Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Interior said on Aug. 1.
The blast occurred around 8:10 p.m. local time, an Interior Ministry official told the state-run TASS news agency. The incident occurred near the Kudrinskaya Square Building, a Stalin-era skyscraper and prominent tourist attraction in the Russian capital.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee identified one of the three deceased as a woman who had tried to bring an explosive device into the restaurant. Authorities said a guard who stopped the woman was also killed in the blast, along with a cafe customer.
Authorities have not provided further details about those killed.
“An inspection of the site is currently underway,” the Interior Ministry official said.
Emergency responders are continuing to assess people for injuries
The state-run RIA Novosti reported the restaurant in question was the Balzi Rossi, an Italian restaurant.
The restaurant’s website indicated it was closed for a banquet on Aug. 1. It was not clear who was in attendance at the banquet and if they were among the intended targets of the bomb blast.
There have been numerous assassination and bomb plots in cities in Russia since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russian political commentator Darya Dugina, the daughter of political philosopher Alexander Dugin, was killed while driving around Moscow in August 2022 by a bomb planted on her Toyota Land Cruiser. Dugina, like her father, had been supportive of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Illya Kyva, a former Ukrainian politician who relocated to Russia in 2022, was gunned down in a park near Moscow in December 2023. Kyva had called for Ukraine to capitulate to the Russian invasion and Ukrainian authorities charged and convicted him in absentia of treason.
Following Kyva’s death, Ukrainian GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov said, “The same fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine and accomplices of Putin’s regime.”
Earlier this year, Russia’s Federal Security Services announced it would step up protective measures for high-ranking military officials.
