Updated

Updated · EUobserver · Aug 4

Bomb at Moscow Restaurant Kills 5 in Apparent Bid to Assassinate 55-Year-Old General Chaiko

Updated

Updated · EUobserver · Aug 4

Bomb at Moscow Restaurant Kills 5 in Apparent Bid to Assassinate 55-Year-Old General Chaiko

Q: What caused a deadly blast inside one of Moscow's iconic Stalin-era skyscrapers, and could it be connected to a past tragedy?

The cause has not been officially established, but early reporting points most strongly to a gas-related explosion, likely in the restaurant area or kitchen inside the Kudrinskaya Square Building. The blast hit the Balzi Rossi restaurant on the ground floor of one of Moscow’s best-known Stalin-era “Seven Sisters” skyscrapers. Russian investigators said the circumstances were still being determined, and authorities had not confirmed a final cause. However, several local and witness-based reports cited a possible gas leak or gas explosion as the leading theory. That suspicion is strengthened by a closely related precedent on the same square. In January 2012, the Italian restaurant Il Pittore, also on Kudrinskaya Square, was devastated by a kitchen explosion and fire that killed two people and injured dozens. In that earlier case, investigators believed improper use of gas canisters or a gas leak triggered the blast, and a criminal inquiry examined safety violations. So yes, the latest explosion could be connected to a past tragedy in one important sense: not as part of a wider plot, but because it may echo the 2012 Kudrinskaya Square restaurant disaster, with a similar suspected gas mechanism in a restaurant setting. There is no confirmed link to other major Moscow incidents, such as bombings or the 2002 Dubrovka theater siege, and no official evidence so far that this was an attack rather than an accident.

3 articles · Updated · EUobserver · Aug 4

Five people died and six were left in serious condition after a 1kg-TNT bomb packed with metal pellets exploded at Moscow’s Balzi Rossi restaurant during General Aleksandr Chaiko’s birthday celebration.
Russian investigators believe the female attacker was carrying the device in a gift box and that it was detonated remotely when security stopped her before she could reach Chaiko’s private event.
Chaiko, appointed in May to command Russia’s Aerospace Forces, reportedly survived, though officials have not disclosed his condition; opposition and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels say his 25-year-old daughter was badly wounded and her husband may be dead.
The blast has sharpened criticism from pro-war bloggers, who questioned why senior military and security figures were gathering at a luxury restaurant near the Kremlin and why Russian intelligence failed to secure central Moscow.
Moscow has blamed Ukraine before releasing investigation results, and the attack fits a pattern of repeated assassination attempts on Russian generals since the start of the war.