Five Killed in Moscow Restaurant Blast; Kurdish-Russian MP Zelimkhan Mutsoev Injured
According to Russian media, the explosion occurred during a private celebration hosted by General Alexander Chayko, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, marking his 55th birthday and his recent appointment to the post.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Five people were killed and 19 others injured in an explosion at a restaurant in Moscow, Russian authorities said on Sunday, with Kurdish-Russian lawmaker Zelimkhan Mutsoev among those wounded.
According to Russian media, the explosion occurred during a private celebration hosted by General Alexander Chayko, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, marking his 55th birthday and his recent appointment to the post.
The gathering was held Saturday night at an Italian restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in central Moscow. Eight members of Russia's State Duma, along with senior military and security officials, were reportedly invited to the event.
Russian media reported that Mutsoev's private Maybach was parked outside the restaurant at the time of the explosion. Kurdistan24 has learned from sources close to the lawmaker that he was among the guests attending the celebration. Although he was injured in the blast, the sources said he is now in very good condition.
Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee initially reported that three people had been killed and 21 others wounded, attributing the explosion to an improvised explosive device (IED). On Sunday, authorities confirmed that two of the injured later died in hospital, bringing the death toll to five. Officials added that six of the remaining injured are in critical condition.
Preliminary reports indicate that a woman posing as a delivery worker attempted to enter the restaurant carrying a wrapped package she claimed was a birthday gift for General Chayko. A security guard stopped her at the entrance, and the package exploded, killing the woman, the guard, and another person instantly. Two additional victims later succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
Investigators estimate the explosive device contained the equivalent of approximately one kilogram of TNT, according to Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee.
Mutsoev, born in 1959 in Tbilisi, is a Kurdish-Ezidi political figure and one of the longest-serving deputies in Russia's State Duma, having served in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th convocations.
He moved to Moscow in the early 1990s and served from 1991 to 1993 as director of the Moscow branch of the Association for Foreign Economic Relations of Small and Medium Enterprises, an organization involved in supplying goods across the former Soviet Union. He was re-elected to the State Duma in both 2016 and 2021.
