{"id":57956,"date":"2026-08-03T12:45:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T12:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/steve-rosenberg-at-the-moscow-restaurant-where-bomb-killed-three\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T12:45:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T12:45:43","slug":"steve-rosenberg-at-the-moscow-restaurant-where-bomb-killed-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/steve-rosenberg-at-the-moscow-restaurant-where-bomb-killed-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Rosenberg at the Moscow restaurant where bomb killed three"},"content":{"rendered":"


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On Kudrinskaya Square the police cordon has been lifted outside the Balzi Rossi Italian restaurant. Investigators have left the scene. <\/b><\/p>\n

On Saturday night it had been surrounded by heavily armed police; a string of ambulances and emergency services vehicles had been parked outside.<\/p>\n

Standing next to the restaurant’s summer terrace I spot signs of what happened here. A shattered window, pock-marked walls – a bomb had exploded with deadly consequences. <\/p>\n

Russian state media reports at least three people were killed and 21 injured.<\/p>\n

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee believes that a woman with an improvised explosive device had tried to walk into the restaurant. Russian news outlets have suggested she may have been a courier trying to deliver a package to one of the guests at a private function; she may not have known the true contents of the parcel. A security guard prevented her from entering. Moments later the device detonated.<\/p>\n

Since the attack<\/a> there have been unconfirmed reports that a senior Russian military commander was at the restaurant that night. However, there is still no official confirmation of the guest list and who exactly had been attending the private dinner.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin has yet to comment. But in a statement posted on Sunday, the Russian Embassy in Italy blamed the restaurant attack on Ukraine. There was no identification, though, of the Russian military as the potential target.<\/p>\n

“It is clear that when planning a terrorist attack on one of the best Italian restaurants in Moscow, the Kyiv terrorists wanted to scare Italians working in Russia…” the embassy declared.<\/p>\n

Most of the people I talk to on Kudrinskaya Square have no doubt that there is a direct connection between an explosion in a restaurant and the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

After all, in the last couple of years there have been several bomb attacks on senior Russian military figures – Moscow has blamed those on Kyiv.<\/p>\n

“The explosions, the deaths, they frighten me,” Ludmila tells me. “It’s probably linked to the war that’s going on.”<\/p>\n

Then I speak to Galina. <\/p>\n

“This is the work of Britain, this is your work,” Galina says, angry at UK support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

At this point it gets personal. <\/p>\n

“I’ve seen you asking our president nasty questions,” Galina says, “It makes me want to come up and punch you.”<\/p>\n

Alexandra had been walking her dog near the restaurant when the bomb exploded.<\/p>\n

“I heard a loud bang. I realised immediately that it was an explosion. I live here in the building. It’s terrible.”<\/p>\n

A bomb in a restaurant is a major news story. Yet over the weekend it received minimal coverage on Russian TV.<\/p>\n

The Sunday morning news bulletin on Russia-1 reported on Russian strikes on Ukraine, celebrations of Russian Paratroopers’ Day (as well as Russian Railway Workers’ Day), plus the latest developments regarding Donald Trump and Iran.<\/p>\n

There was no mention of the explosion in the Moscow restaurant.<\/p>\n

That may reflect the Russian authorities’ desire to avoid a sense of alarm among the public.<\/p>\n

For Alexandra, it may be too late.<\/p>\n

“I can’t get over this, I can’t,” Alexandra tells me, “Because it basically happened right in front of me. It was terrible. I just don’t know how I’m going to get over this.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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On Kudrinskaya Square the police cordon has been lifted outside the Balzi Rossi Italian restaurant. Investigators have left the scene. On Saturday night it had been surrounded by heavily armed police; a string of ambulances and emergency services vehicles had been parked outside. Standing next to the restaurant’s summer terrace I spot signs of what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57958,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57956\/revisions\/57958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}