Updated

Updated · Meduza · Aug 3

Moscow Blast Reportedly Targeted Aerospace Chief Chayko, 6th Attack on Russian Generals in 2 Years

Updated

Updated · Meduza · Aug 3

Moscow Blast Reportedly Targeted Aerospace Chief Chayko, 6th Attack on Russian Generals in 2 Years

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 · Meduza · Aug 3

Alexander Chayko, appointed head of Russia’s Aerospace Forces in May, was reportedly the target of the August 1 explosion at Moscow’s Balzi Rossi restaurant, though authorities have not officially named him.
At least six assassination attempts have hit Russian generals away from the front over two years, with three fatal bombings in Moscow or its region and one shooting that the target survived.
Russian investigators in earlier cases said perpetrators were recruited by Ukrainian intelligence, securing life sentences in the killings of generals Igor Kirillov and Yaroslav Moskalik.
The Balzi Rossi blast drew almost no official follow-up beyond Mayor Sergei Sobyanin calling it a terrorist attack, and investigators have not said whether a criminal case was opened.