Russian authorities immediately called the Moscow restaurant explosion a terrorist attack — then stopped talking about it

Six days after an explosion tore through the upscale Balzi Rossi restaurant in central Moscow, Russian authorities have gone largely silent on what happened, Meduza reports. Within hours, officials called it a bomb attack, and Moscow's mayor labeled it a terrorist attack the next morning — but since then, the only public comment has come from the Russian Embassy in Italy, which claimed Ukrainian authorities orchestrated the bombing to intimidate Italians working in Russia, an accusation Kyiv has not addressed. Official reports put the death toll at three, including the woman who delivered the bomb, described by one outlet as an unwitting courier, though the embassy and unofficial accounts put the number at five. Two of the identified victims are Major General Valery Plokhotnyuk and Daniil Peredriy, son-in-law of Alexander Chayko, commander-in-chief of Russia's Aerospace Forces, who was reportedly celebrating his birthday at the restaurant that night. No Russian security agency has confirmed even the basic status of the investigation, and the restaurant remains closed.

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