Moscow Blast: Mayor Calls Restaurant Bombing 'Terrorist Act', Three Dead

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Sunday described a bomb attack on a restaurant in the capital the previous evening as a "brutal terrorist act," but did not assign blame to any individual or group.

The explosion at the Balzi Rossi, an upscale Italian restaurant in central Moscow, killed three people including a woman who reportedly attempted to bring the bomb inside, according to Russian state media citing local officials. At least 21 others were wounded, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said late on Saturday.

In a social media post on Sunday, Mr. Sobyanin said: "Yesterday, a brutal terrorist act was committed in Moscow that claimed human lives. The victims are currently in the city's hospitals, where they are receiving all necessary care." He added that an investigation was underway and that those responsible would face punishment.

State news agency Ria Novosti reported that a woman tried to smuggle the bomb into the establishment, but a security guard refused her entry before the device exploded. The Moscow Investigative Committee said on Saturday evening the attack was still being investigated.

As of early afternoon on Sunday, no further information had been released by Russian authorities, and no individual or organisation had publicly claimed responsibility. According to Ria Novosti, the restaurant was closed for a private function on Saturday evening.

Footage released by Russian state media showed heavily armed law-enforcement officers, ambulances and other emergency vehicles at the site.

Earlier this year, Russia's Federal Security Service announced tighter security around senior military and government officials after a series of assassination attempts in Russian cities that followed the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. So far, Russian authorities have not drawn any connection between Saturday's blast and those earlier attacks or the war in Ukraine.

Russia previously accused Kyiv of involvement in a car bombing in Moscow last April that killed Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in Russia's General Staff. Ukraine did not publicly claim responsibility.

Ukraine's SBU security service, however, earlier said it organised the killing in December 2024 of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, who headed the Russian military's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces. Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building, a day after Ukraine's security service levelled criminal charges against him.

Among other prominent victims of bombing attacks in Russia were Daria Dugina, the daughter of nationalist thinker Aleksandr Dugin, and Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known pro-Kremlin military blogger. Kyiv denied involvement in Dugina's killing and did not respond to Russian accusations regarding Tatarsky's death.