Moscow explosion: 28 killed or wounded in restaurant attack

Moscow explosion: 28 casualties at a restaurant and an intelligence war that keeps escalating

A security guard stopped a woman delivering a box at the entrance of the Balzi Rossi restaurant in Moscow. She said it was a gift. He insisted on inspecting it. According to circulating accounts, that sequence ended with both of them dead and an attack that left at least 28 casualties in Moscow. The bomb, equivalent to one kilogram of TNT, was detonated remotely. The courier probably did not know what she was carrying.

The attack has been met with sarcasm and celebration in circles that trinc the war in Ukraine. Some see the operation as proof that Ukrainian counter-intelligence outperforms its Russian counterpart. Others, however, point out that killing an innocent courier to reach a target turns the operation into something closer to an amateur commando stunt than the work of a professional service. Comparisons with the GRAPO of the 1990s, when the terrorist group was already little more than a footnote, have surfaced in the analysis.

The episode also reopens the debate over Ukraine's ability to strike inside Russian territory. It is no secret that the war has entered a phase of targeted attacks on symbolic objectives. What is surprising is the modus operandi: a bomb at a private event with reinforced security, delivered by someone who did not know what they were carrying. The scene has a touch of tragic absurdity that not even the best spy novel would have imagined.

Pending official confirmation, the toll remains unclear: 28 dead or wounded, two of them identified immediately. The rest, unspecified. The only certainty is that, in the war of the intelligence services, the next move is already being prepared.